One slip settled the night
Josha Vagnoman scored twice on Friday night. Only one of them counted for Stuttgart.
The Bundesliga came back at the Allianz Arena and Dayot Upamecano opened the scoring for Bayern Munich. Vagnoman levelled it, briefly, and for a few minutes Stuttgart looked like a side capable of taking something out of Munich on opening night. Michael Olise put Bayern back in front. Then came the moment the evening will be remembered for: Vagnoman slid in to clear, lost his footing, and turned the ball into his own net.
Stuttgart never recovered from it. Aleksandar Pavlovic and Luis Diaz added the fourth and fifth, and a competitive game became a 5-1 result long before the final whistle.
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Bayern start where they left off
This is the first step of a run at a 36th German title, and the champions have never needed much encouragement. Opta’s preseason model gave Bayern a 76.7 percent chance of winning the league again before a ball had been kicked, a number that looked generous to the rest of the division at the time and looks conservative after ninety minutes.
Olise and Diaz on the same scoresheet matters more than the margin. Bayern spent the summer answering questions about width and about who supplies Harry Kane once defences sit deep. Five goals on the first night of the season is not a full answer, but it is a loud one.
Stuttgart arrived in Munich with a squad still being shaped, and with Bilal El Khannouss the subject of interest from Newcastle. They created enough in the opening half hour to suggest the scoreline flatters the hosts. Football rarely files those complaints.
What follows
Bayern travel to Schalke 04 next. Stuttgart host Cologne on Friday, September 4, at 3:30 p.m., and will want a settled back four by then. The rest of the opening round runs through the weekend, with Elversberg hosting Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund facing Hamburg.
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