Thomas Tuchel has urged Bayern Munich to be “smart, brave” and “at their best physically,” for the challenge of facing Manchester City at the Etihad.
The Bayern head coach has barely been in his new job for a fortnight, but if he is still feeling his way around what he called the “tactical solutions” available to him, he has every reason for confidence in second-guessing City’s game plan.
After all, Tuchel has devoted many hours to studying their manager Pep Guardiola and has a history of more than matching him in knockout competitions, the best of which brings them into collision this evening, as City and Bayern contest the first leg of a Champions League quarter-final.
Tuchel versus Guardiola: it has become a classic modern duel, a joust of like-minded innovators with a mutual respect and an intriguing backstory.
Tuchel, at 49 the younger man by three years, used to seek out Guardiola’s company when Guardiola was coaching Bayern, to learn from him.
Not much later they became rivals across in the heavyweight division of German football, when Tuchel took over at Borussia Dortmund.
Those games usually went Guardiola’s way. As fellow coaches in England, when Tuchel was at Chelsea, the tide turned a little. Part of what fascinates in tonight’s 11th head-to-head between the two managers are the echoes of the Champions League final two seasons ago.
Then, as now, Tuchel had been sacked by one club earlier in the season and joined another to correct signs of a slump.
Recently departed from Paris Saint-Germain, he took over Chelsea in early 2021. Within four months, he had strung together three victories over Guardiola’s City, in an FA Cup semi-final, in the Premier League and, most significantly, by 1-0 in Porto to lift the European Cup.
“A tight game,” recalled Guardiola yesterday. “We reviewed it a month later and it wasn’t as bad as I thought. But I don’t live in the past.”
He described Tuchel as “a creative manager,” hinting he will be intrigued at the “shape they [Bayern] play”.
The Tuchel stamp on Bayern can only be faintly traced so far – in three games since replacing the sacked Julian Nagelsmann, he has beaten Dortmund to regain leadership of a tight Bundesliga title race, lost in the German Cup to Freiburg, and defeated Freiburg in the league – but there are some clear beneficiaries of his short reign so far.
Among them, Leroy Sane, who tonight returns to the club where he spent four seasons developing as a high-class winger before, unusually for a City player in the Guardiola era, leaving when City would have preferred him to stay.
He was 24 when he moved to Munich, and Bayern were then the Champions League holders. If his aim was to establish himself as a more guaranteed pick in the starting XI than he felt he had been at City, he has not quite achieved it. But Tuchel has backed the winger to flourish.
“Leroy’s at an age [27], where the road ahead is unforgiving,” Tuchel said. “It’s up to him to make the most of that, and we’ll support him in it.”
Sane has played for all but a minute, operating from a position wide on the right, of Tuchel’s three games so far and he excelled in the 4-2 win over Dortmund. Of his last eight league or European matches under Nagelsmann, Sane had started four on the bench.
Guardiola warned of Bayern’s “very good attacking players, so creative, built to win”.
Tuchel has tactical options, although his preferred centre-forward, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, is out of the first leg with a knee problem. That may mean Thomas Muller pushing up into the middle of the front three, or the speed of Serge Gnabry being used in a central role.
Sadio Mane – signed from Liverpool last summer, but without a Bayern goal since October and absent through December and January with injury – is also in contention.
Mane has been City’s nemesis more times than Guardiola would care to remember. This time a year ago, he was scoring the equaliser for Liverpool at the Etihad to maintain the suspense in last season’s tussle for a Premier League title City edged by a point.
Six days later, Mane’s two Liverpool goals – his ninth and tenth in his 19 career meetings with City – were knocking Guardiola’s men out of an FA Cup semi-final.
“We have to be perfect to get a good result to take to Germany,” said Guardiola. “Against an elite club like Bayern, you have to deserve it.”
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
The five pillars of Islam
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
More on Quran memorisation:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Zayed Sustainability Prize
How%20to%20avoid%20getting%20scammed
%3Cul%3E%0A%3Cli%3ENever%20click%20on%20links%20provided%20via%20app%20or%20SMS%2C%20even%20if%20they%20seem%20to%20come%20from%20authorised%20senders%20at%20first%20glance%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EAlways%20double-check%20the%20authenticity%20of%20websites%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EEnable%20Two-Factor%20Authentication%20(2FA)%20for%20all%20your%20working%20and%20personal%20services%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EOnly%20use%20official%20links%20published%20by%20the%20respective%20entity%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3Cli%3EDouble-check%20the%20web%20addresses%20to%20reduce%20exposure%20to%20fake%20sites%20created%20with%20domain%20names%20containing%20spelling%20errors%3C%2Fli%3E%0A%3C%2Ful%3E%0A
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Small%20Things%20Like%20These
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
SPEC SHEET
Display: 6.8" edge quad-HD dynamic Amoled 2X, Infinity-O, 3088 x 1440, 500ppi, HDR10 , 120Hz
Processor: 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1/Exynos 2200, 8-core
Memory: 8/12GB RAM
Storage: 128/256/512GB/1TB
Platform: Android 12
Main camera: quad 12MP ultra-wide f/2.2, 108MP wide f/1.8, 10MP telephoto f/4.9, 10MP telephoto 2.4; Space Zoom up to 100x, auto HDR, expert RAW
Video: 8K@24fps, 4K@60fps, full-HD@60fps, HD@30fps, super slo-mo@960fps
Front camera: 40MP f/2.2
Battery: 5000mAh, fast wireless charging 2.0 Wireless PowerShare
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC
I/O: USB-C
SIM: single nano, or nano and SIM, nano and nano, eSIM/nano and nano
Colours: burgundy, green, phantom black, phantom white, graphite, sky blue, red
Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
THE BIO
Family: I have three siblings, one older brother (age 25) and two younger sisters, 20 and 13
Favourite book: Asking for my favourite book has to be one of the hardest questions. However a current favourite would be Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
Favourite place to travel to: Any walkable city. I also love nature and wildlife
What do you love eating or cooking: I’m constantly in the kitchen. Ever since I changed the way I eat I enjoy choosing and creating what goes into my body. However, nothing can top home cooked food from my parents.
Favorite place to go in the UAE: A quiet beach.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
match info
Union Berlin 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')
Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)
European arms
Known EU weapons transfers to Ukraine since the war began: Germany 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger surface-to-air missiles. Luxembourg 100 NLAW anti-tank weapons, jeeps and 15 military tents as well as air transport capacity. Belgium 2,000 machine guns, 3,800 tons of fuel. Netherlands 200 Stinger missiles. Poland 100 mortars, 8 drones, Javelin anti-tank weapons, Grot assault rifles, munitions. Slovakia 12,000 pieces of artillery ammunition, 10 million litres of fuel, 2.4 million litres of aviation fuel and 2 Bozena de-mining systems. Estonia Javelin anti-tank weapons. Latvia Stinger surface to air missiles. Czech Republic machine guns, assault rifles, other light weapons and ammunition worth $8.57 million.
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