COMMENT: With only four wins from 16 away matches in Champions League knockouts, Pep's chronic caution was again exposed and left the German champions in a spot of bother
Not many teams go to the Allianz Arena with any legitimate hope of a result. Bayern Munich are unbeaten there all season and have failed to win only once. In that respect, not many in Bavaria will be lamenting the German record champions' failure to put down Shakhtar Donetsk in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.
Shakhtar, however, are only an early away goal from making Bayern very uncomfortable after holding Pep Guardiola's side to a scoreless draw in Lviv. Mircea Lucescu set his side out to frustrate Bayern and possibly snaffle a goal on the break. The first part of the plan was exercised with, from a Bayern perspective, far too much ease. The second, due to Bayern's canny knack of defending by possession, was ultimately thwarted.
"We played with 10 men for a long time," Guardiola told Sky after. "That made it difficult for us. We controlled the match but we created few chances. It is always better to score an away goal. Now we have to win and we will do that."
Again, though, Bayern played with the hand-break on. Guardiola's season-and-a-half in Bavaria has brought only a handful of displays worth talking about in Europe. Their particular brand of cautious dominance manifested itself again here.
Shakhtar are a team in trouble. Their own home ground, the benighted Donbass Arena, is further from their temporary home in Lviv than Munich is. They have not played a competitive match in nearly three months as the Ukrainian Premier League remains on its winter break. There should have been more for Bayern to take than a stalemate.
Instead, Bayern could only manage one measly shot on target in a performance that presented the same familiar problems for Pep to work out. While the ability of Lionel Messi could provide an escape route against steadfast opponents for Barcelona, Pep's attackers in Bavaria lack the Argentine's dimensions.
Too often, again, Bayern worked the ball into dark alleys with no significant threat coming from anywhere other than the inside runs of Arjen Robben. This turgid draw - a far, far better result for Shakhtar than for Bayern - means Guardiola has still presided over only four away wins in Champions League knockout ties
Guardiola is too respectful of opponents in an away day context and errs superfluously on the side of caution. He is a coach who is so meticulous in his preparations as to field his team based on what he thinks the opposition will do. Here was a team, though, without Bayern's quality against whom better work should have been done.
Yes, Shakhtar were lucky to remain with 11 men by the end. Darijo Srna and Douglas Costa both escaped red cards for violent acts and, had they been dismissed, Bayern would probably have capitalised numerically. But it shouldn't come down to that for the favourites for the competition. Guardiola must find a way to impose Bayern's play on Europe - otherwise one ordinary performance, and one slip up at home, will end his continental campaign.
"Prior to the match I would not have been satisfied with a 0-0," Bayern Sporting Director Matthias Sammer said afterwards. "Now we can maybe live with it because of Alonso's sending off. But it is a dangerous result. It sounds great but it is really dangerous. If you want to reach the next round you must start winning matches at some point. And that's what we are trying to do for the return leg."
It comes down to a negativity of strategy and formation.
Here Pep played without a striker. Robert Lewandowski, a scorer of 19 Champions League goal in a thus far stellar continental career, was thrown on late after Mario Gotze's race was run. Instead, Thomas Muller and Gotze took it in turns to ferry from the midfield to the front, leaving Bayern with plenty in the centre of the pitch, reflected in their possession, but little up top.
If ever there was evidence presented to Guardiola that a midfield containing Bastian Schweinsteiger and Xabi Alonso is too slow, then let this be it. Schweinsteiger, again, was ordinary and accrued a booking for tripping Wellington Nem on a breakaway. Alonso, meanwhile, fared worse. He committed two yellow card offences and was dismissed for bringing a halt to a Shakhtar attack illegitimately. Has that what it has come to for Bayern? Hacking down Shakhtar players on the break in ties they should be winning?
There was again that peculiar type of sterile dominance which comes either through the Bayern's inability to adhere to Pep's demands or from the coach's own relentless caution away from home in the Champions League. Put the two together and it makes for needless tightrope scenarios.
