United led a merry dance, but Bayern fail to kill off tie

A show of obvious superiority from Bayern Munich, but still only a slight advantage. The gap in those facts may go some way to eventually deciding whether this team finally becomes the dynasty that retains the modern Champions League.

Should Pep Guardiola’s side do that, it will be tough to dispute they represent both a step-up from his Barcelona, and from last season’s European champions, but this game perhaps showed why there remains an element of doubt about that.

If they are still obvious favourites for this season’s trophy, this 1-1 draw suggested they are not quite the “super-favourites” that Arsene Wenger described.

The transition hasn’t been quite as completely clean as some of Bayern’s divine passing.

The one obvious evolution with Guardiola’s side, and it’s something that also marks a change from his Barcelona team, is in the constant revolutions around the pitch.

Whereas the Catalans had that settled midfield trio of Sergio Busquets-Xavi-Andres Iniesta, and Bayern Munich had a more obvious first XI last season, it is basically impossible to pin down the current German champions — in any manner.

The fact that Guardiola seems to have an almost limitless number of configurations — which is also important in the context of Bastien Schweinsteiger’s red card — makes it exceptionally difficult to second-guess his selections and prepare, and also means they so fluidly rotate around the pitch too.

Crucially, that ensures there is no drop-off in quality of possession either. Bayern remain absolutely gorgeous on the ball, regardless of personnel. No matter who is on the pitch, there are always at least three options for a pass, with all of those options constantly moving.

At times, the contrast here was stark. Whereas there always seemed huge gaps in the United structure beyond the defence, Bayern consistently had a man in space exactly where a loose ball was set to land. Needless to say, there weren’t too many of them.

That command of both possession and space is the ultimate aim of the original Total Football philosophy, and is something Guardiola has been wanting to take onto the next level. While you can clearly see that is the long-term point in everything Bayern do, unflinchingly striving for it does lead to short-term drop-offs. Bizarrely for a manager that produces such dominant football, Guardiola sides tend to give you a chance.

It was something that cost his Barcelona the chance to retain the trophy in 2010 and 2012 — if not win three or four in a row — and it should not be a huge surprise if it prevents this Bayern making history too.

Here, they could not prevent United taking the lead. As good as Nemanja Vidic’s 58th-minute header was, how poor was it to not have a man at the back-post?

Worse, how often have we seen that from Guardiola teams? He definitely has a blind spot at set-pieces.

Here, though, Bayern shouldn’t have been blind to the fact something was coming. Danny Welbeck gave them warning with his disallowed goal and then that dismally-wasted one-on-one, as the Germans seemed to be playing with an odd sense of comfort and calmness verging on complacency.

The flip side of all that, however, was it was that exact calmness that led to them just keeping the same gameplan to eventually expose United for the away goal.

By that stage, similarly, there were clear signs of the home side’s energy flagging after all the off-the-ball chasing done early on.

That is the point often missed in all the arguments about Guardiola’s approach and a ‘Plan B’. If the entire point is to pull the opposition around to the point they eventually leave more and more gaps, why suddenly change it when they get jaded?

Bayern didn’t, and eventually claimed the advantage.

In saying that, though, Guardiola does now have one advantage over his old Barca team. If he does not necessarily change ‘plan’, he does have extra options to augment his original one. There was no clearer example of that than bringing on Mario Mandzukic, with the Croatian’s presence also a reminder that Bayern retain the physical power of last season too.

Here, the substitute used that to set up Bastien Schweinsteiger, who thundered the ball into the net.

Bayern, however, have not quite netted a place in the semi-finals yet.