Playing at home, Bayern Munich kept their excellent start to the season going by defeating Club Burgge 4-0 in the Champions League league phase, but they had an unlikely scorer rise to the occasion to open the scoring. On Wednesday, 17-year-old Lennart Karl opened the scoring with a great finish, looking like a veteran in the process. In only his 11th appearance for the club, this was Karl’s first Bayern Munich goal and one that manager Vincent Kompany will want to be the first of many.
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This appearance in the Champions League was Karl’s third start for Bayern in all competitions, and he looked like he belonged, which gives Kompany more options for rotating the squad. Last season, the young winger was with Bayern’s U-17s and U-19s but came with the club to the United States for the Club World Cup, making his senior debut, and wouldn’t look back.
While it was a long summer, things like Karl’s integration into Kompany’s squad show the value of playing in a competitive club tournament ahead of the preseason. Now, he’ll look to have a role in pushing Bayern to win their first Champions League title since the 2019-2020 season.
At the end of match day three, the Bavarians sit second behind only Paris Saint-Germain with three wins in three matches, having scored 13 goals and only conceded two. Harry Kane is also joint top of the Golden Boot race with Kylian Mbappe with five goals, but with performances like Karl’s, they’re getting strong performances from up and down the roster. It’s tight at the top of the league phase table, but with depth growing by the day, Bayern Munich are Champions League contenders with this young gun proving he can deliver.