Bayern Munich Advances in DFB-Pokal Despite Struggles

Bayern Munich had to work through a strange night in the DFB-Pokal, but the scoreboard told a simple story: 4-1 away at VfL Osnabrück and safely into the next round. The performance? That was a little messier.

Shock to the system

The tie was barely five minutes old when the Bundesliga giants were staring at a deficit and wondering what on earth had just happened.

A loose sequence at the back did the damage. Jonathan Tah and Kim Min-jae both switched off, Tah slipped, Jonas Urbig strayed too aggressively from his line, and Robin Meißner punished the chaos with a thunderous strike. Osnabrück led 1-0, the stadium exploded, and Bayern looked briefly rattled.

It felt like the kind of cup night where everything might go wrong.

It didn’t.

Bayern quickly grabbed the ball and the game. They monopolised possession, pinned Osnabrück back and probed, but the hosts refused to fold. The home side’s intensity, backed by a ferocious crowd and an eye-catching tifo, kept the tie alive far longer than the final score suggests.

Line-up calls and early struggles

Thomas Tuchel did not take any risks with a full-scale rotation. The team sheet signalled intent, and for Osnabrück, trouble.

Kim Min-jae started ahead of Dayot Upamecano, Josip Stanišić got the nod over Konrad Laimer, and Nathaniel Brown replaced Alphonso Davies at left-back. In midfield, Tom Bischof was preferred to Aleksandar Pavlović, and the former Hoffenheim talent seized his chance.

Ismael Saibari, though, laboured early on. His ideas were bold, his aggression welcome, but his execution lagged behind. He never quite clicked with the rhythm of Bayern’s attack before making way in the second half.

At the back, the new partnership of Tah and Kim looked anything but settled. Positioning was loose, movement clunky, and several sequences turned chaotic. Tah, in particular, looked rusty and uncomfortable moving laterally. It’s not panic time yet, but the pairing clearly needs work.

Brown, on the left, delivered the opposite kind of performance: understated but reliable. He offered little going forward in a first half that rarely flowed down his flank, yet he defended solidly. Davies later replaced him, but neither full-back truly shifted the narrative in that position battle. For now, Brown still holds a slight edge.

Kane flips the script

The pressure finally told in the 18th minute.

Joshua Kimmich floated a ball into Harry Kane, who made a direct run into the box. Osnabrück tried to deal with it, but the attempted header only sent the ball looping straight up. Kane pounced, smashing a volley home to level at 1-1. Clinical, ruthless, inevitable.

Five minutes later, Bayern turned the game on its head.

Michael Olise, who had been searching for his moment, slid a perfectly weighted pass into Luis Díaz. The winger’s shot was saved by Jonas Krumrey, but Bischof arrived with impeccable timing to bury the rebound. Bayern 2-1, the comeback complete.

Bischof didn’t just score. He ran. And ran. His work rate tormented Osnabrück all evening, harrying defenders, linking play, and constantly offering himself as an outlet. For a player fighting for minutes in a crowded midfield, this was exactly the sort of statement he needed.

Krumrey kept Osnabrück in touch before the break with a superb save to deny Olise, clawing away what looked destined to be Bayern’s third. The half ended with Bayern on top but not entirely convincing, and Osnabrück very much alive.

Second-half slog

The restart brought more of the same pattern but less of the same sharpness. Bayern controlled, but the tempo dropped. The early-season schedule, already squeezing in an English Week, began to show in heavy legs and slower combinations.

Osnabrück never stopped fighting. They tackled hard, chased lost causes, and made Bayern earn every yard. For a side outgunned on paper, they were stubborn, physical, and admirably defiant.

On 62 minutes, Tuchel turned to his bench. Brown and Saibari came off, Davies and Lennart Karl came on. The change didn’t immediately transform much. The structure remained, the control remained, the lethargy remained.

Then Olise finally delivered the moment he had been hinting at.

Olise kills the contest, Kane finishes the job

In the 73rd minute, Olise, now operating centrally as the attacking midfielder after Saibari’s withdrawal, produced the goal that broke Osnabrück’s resistance. He controlled the ball under pressure and finished neatly to make it 3-1, effectively ending the contest and snapping Bayern out of their second-half drift.

On another night, with VAR in play, the goal might not have stood. Olise’s elbow clearly helped him bring the ball under control. Here, with no video review to intervene, the referee allowed it, and Bayern took full advantage.

From that point, the game lost its edge. Bayern slowed things down, Osnabrück’s belief faded, and the tie slipped into a low-intensity rhythm.

There was still time for Kane to add a touch of polish.

In the 84th minute, Pavlović was brought down in the box, and the referee pointed to the spot. Kane stepped up, rolled the penalty in with his usual composure, and sealed a 4-1 win. No fuss, no drama, just another goal for a striker who rarely wastes these chances.

Imperfect, but enough

This won’t be remembered as one of Bayern Munich’s great cup performances. The second half dragged, the defence wobbled, and the attack drifted in and out of sync. The early-season chemistry is clearly still forming.

But the essentials are there: resilience after an early shock, key players delivering when needed, and a promising display from Bischof in midfield. Brown vs. Davies at left-back looks set to become one of the more intriguing internal battles of the campaign, while Tah and Kim have work to do to look like a truly commanding partnership.

Osnabrück left with a scoreline that felt harsh on their effort, but they had forced Bayern to take the night seriously. The holders, though, are through — and already turning their attention to the weekend meeting with Schalke 04, where the expectation will be not just to win, but to look far sharper doing it.