In the first leg against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League, Bayern limped to a 0-0 draw. The result was the second surprise of the day. The first surprise was the exclusion of their new star striker, Robert Lewandowski, from the starting lineup. Lewandowski came in to Bayern in mid 2014 on a free transfer. To accommodate him, the dogmatic but hard working Mario Mandzukic was pushed out.
Lewandowski has not quite set the world alight. He was going through a rough patch at the time of the first leg. Guardiola, while not losing complete faith in him, did not seem to trust him for the biggest game of Bayern’s season up to that point. Lewandowski, in his final season at Dortmund, struck 20 times in the league, averaging 0.6 goals per game. The ratio is marginally lower at Bayern at 0.54 goals per game. However, considering the number of times Bayern have absolutely bulldozed an opponent, the importance of many of those goals have paled in comparison to the ones he scored for BVB.
His main issue though has been in the Champions League. Although not all his appearances were from the start, he played eight times for Bayern in the competition and struck only thrice. He also played eight times for BVB in last season’s competition; however, he found the back of the net six times. In the 2012-13 season, he scored ten goals in 13 appearances in the Champions League.
Now facing his old club, he has a point to prove. Many say Lewandowski is just among many stars at Bayern and is replaceable. At BVB, he was definitely irreplaceable; they are still struggling for goals without him. In the previous match between the two, the Polish striker scored the winner. Can he repeat the trick and show he is reaching the status he left at BVB at Bayern now?
As for his teammate and his former provider at Dortmund, Mario Götze, the season has been a good one but not nearly as brilliant as the ones he had when he was at Dortmund. Yet, this cannot be understood by purely looking at the goals. In 2013-14, with the same number of appearance he made for BVB (44) he scored one more goal for Bayern. This season, he has already scored 15 times, some of which have been vital ones.
Yet, Götze tends to drift in and out of matches far too much. He is overshadowed by his teammates and is difficult to pick out in games at times. He appeared much more magical and vital to BVB than he does to Bayern. A World Cup winning goal was supposed to change him and although Götze has matured and has helped Bayern immensely, he has still not fulfilled his potential and on his worst days, is nothing more than a fringe player.
Can Götze show that he is capable of changing a match with fleet footed action in his former stomping ground?
