Although Bayer Leverkusen didn't clinch victory over Bayern Munich in their clash on Matchday 22, the hosts dominated the league leaders over 90 minutes. bundesliga.com analyses the tactical performance from champion coach Xabi Alonso ahead of the rivalry's resumption in the UEFA Champions League.

Both teams lined up in a 4-4-2 formation - which became a 4-2-3-1 in certain situations - with Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz and Bayern Munich's Jamal Musiala acting in hybrid second-striker/playmaker roles. Alonso chose an extremely aggressive approach to stop Bayern from imposing their game: when Munich had the ball, Leverkusen pressed man-to-man across the entire pitch.

Leverkusen's defensive midfield pairing of Granit Xhaka and Exequiel Palacios pushed up high to cover their Bayern counterparts in Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlović. Musiala, who as usual played mostly on the left, was permanently marked by centre-back Jonathan Tah.

Watch: Bayer Leverkusen 0-0 Bayern Munich - highlights 

Bayern's false nine tactic shut down

To counter Leverkusen's high one-on-one pressing in their build-up play, Bayern looked to Musiala in particular to repeatedly drop deep into a 'false nine' role and open himself up as a passing option, playing one-twos with the centre-backs. But Tah wasn't put off; the defender pressed Musiala all the way to the Bayern penalty area, thus preventing any numerical inferiority for Leverkusen in the middle of the park.

When Bayern realised that Musiala alone was not creating any chances, striker Harry Kane also dropped back into the centre again and again. Faced with two 'false nines', Leverkusen had a real problem: if Edmond Tapsoba, the second centre-back, also moved up, the centre of the home side's defence would be left wide open. Leverkusen continued to play aggressively at first: Tapsoba followed Tah's lead, with the two full-backs, Piero Hincapié and Nordi Mukiele, defending as full-backs behind them - and they had little trouble covering Bayern wingers Michael Olise and Kingsley Coman in the centre too.

Bayern all too rarely sought to break free with long passes, for example from goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, and allowed plenty of space between their pacey wingers and Leverkusen's full-backs. To contain the danger somewhat, Alonso changed his approach during the game: when possible, Alejandro Grimaldo, who played on the left wing, dropped back to the centre to mark Kane, thus securing the space behind a defensive midfield pairing that had pushed up fairly high.

In this new set-up, one-on-one marking again took effect and the individual defending from each Leverkusen player was strong. However, the fact that Bayern rarely managed to find freed-up right-back Konrad Laimer - or to exploit the physically very lopsided duel between Kane and Grimaldo - was also due to a lack of clarity in Bayern's play.

Musiala drops deep, Tah presses far out. - DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga

Want more Bundesliga Action?

GET THE UPDATES!

Alonso's 2-2-1-5 breaks up Bayern's 4-4-2

While Bayern needed until the 73rd minute to even generate their first shot on goal - a blocked half-chance from Kane - Leverkusen were creating clear-cut opportunities from the off and were unlucky not to convert some of them. Sixteen shots and 2.23 expected goals (compared to Bayern's two shots and 0.14 xG) clearly indicate a match that went in favour of Die Werkself.

On paper, Bayern also played a 4-4-2 formation and played intense man-to-man pressing. Nevertheless, it went better for Leverkusen – so how did Alonso do it? Unlike Bayern, who rarely risked long balls, Leverkusen were prepared from the outset to play high balls to get the better of Munich's pressing if necessary. The key difference was that almost everywhere on the pitch, Alonso's tactical choices created uneven match-ups.

To achieve this, Leverkusen built their play in up a 2-2-1-5 formation. In this system, the two wing-backs pushed extremely high up the pitch into the forward line, with Wirtz dropping back to the centre in the No.10 position. The result: on each wing, a pairing was formed between a Leverkusen central defender and a fast wing-back. These duos were defended by a fast Bayern winger, who naturally gave up some power against the wing-back they were covering, and a wing-back. It should be noted that with Grimaldo against Laimer and Jeremie Frimpong against Hiroki Ito, Leverkusen had the speed advantage in each case.

Leverkusen set up in a 2-2-1-5, with Wirtz the key to success. - DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga

Wirtz: Leverkusen's key

Now a big problem arose for Bayern: either one of the centre-backs moved up with Wirtz to the No.10 position, creating a five-against-five defensive line with many mismatches - or the fast and agile Nathan Tella, deployed by Alonso as a centre-forward, caused problems for Bayern stoppers Dayot Upamecano and Minjae Kim. The trio of Wirtz, Palacios and Xhaka also looked to combine and overwhelm Bayern's two defensive midfielders.

In most cases, Bayern decided to maintain their own man-to-man pressing. This meant that Upamecano often left the back line and marked Wirtz as he dropped into midfield. Although the Leverkusen playmaker was not always available to receive a pass, his movement still created crucial spaces. Leverkusen were fully prepared to hit long balls - after all, they had created favourable pace match-ups all over the pitch. Time and again, goalkeeper Lukáš Hrádecký chipped the ball between Upamecano and Kim, for example, with Tella dropping to receive the ball or lay it off to Wirtz or the wing duos, who could then launch a fast attack.

Leverkusen also repeatedly played long balls to the wings. After all, Hincapié and Mukiele were perfectly suited to winning aerial duels against the less robust Olise and Coman before bringing their wing-mates into play. Once the ball had got past Bayern's press, things usually happened very quickly, with combinations down the wings or via the ever-busy Wirtz, who is simply unstoppable at full speed.

Watch: Florian Wirtz named January Player of the Month

Bayern's wall - and a lot of bad luck - decide the game

As simple as this tactical model sounds, it was nevertheless difficult to implement. Bayern generally did a good job defending in the box and, above all, a very strong Upamecano repeatedly cut out passes, intercepted Tella or won duels before things got dicey. Nevertheless, Leverkusen created four big opportunities to take the lead.

In the 21st minute, Leverkusen started to build their play very high up the pitch after taking a corner. The 2-2 formation at the back (with Mukiele a little deeper) put Hincapié on the left in a position where he could drop and play in Tapsoba. Behind Olise, Grimaldo broke free from Laimer and was sent deep, and although Upamecano hadn't moved out to cover Wirtz, there was no stopping the Germany playmaker. Grimaldo sent him into the box and he fired from a tight angle, but was denied by Manuel Neuer. The ball rebounded into the centre, where Frimpong cleverly positioned himself and thundered a free header against the crossbar with the keeper well beaten.

About four minutes later, it was a high ball from Tapsoba to Tella that brought the danger. Although the latter was unable to win the aerial duel, this time with Upamecano (Kim had moved up with Wirtz), the ball ended up with Pavlović, who – still close to Xhaka as a man-to-man marker – was unable to hold the ball against his opponent. The Swiss won the ball back and launched a rapid counter-attack down the left. The lightning-fast Tella sprinted into the box faster than the Bayern defence and, completely unmarked, volleyed against the bar.

A clever corner combination in the 66th minute created the next big opportunity: a long cross was met by Tah with a header from the centre of the six-yard box, leaving Tella free to shoot, but Ito positioned himself perfectly on the goal line and leapt to block Tella's header.

Watch: Joachim Löw on Musiala and Wirtz

A masterclass without reward

In the second half, Leverkusen were no longer able to get forward as effectively as they had done in the first as Bayern continued to eschew their high press for a focus on defensive duties. Bayern were stable in a slightly deeper block and allowed precious little to get through. Many small breakthroughs from Leverkusen yielded very little significant danger, at least until the first minute of stoppage time.

Xhaka dropped back slightly on the left and looked to set something up. Meanwhile, both Hincapié and Grimaldo had moved slightly towards him. The Spaniard immediately saw what Xhaka was trying to do and sprinted forward. The Swiss midfield strategist played an excellent aerial ball behind the poorly coordinated Josip Stanišić (subbed on by Kompany at right-back) and Kimmich, and Grimaldo latched onto it before crossing powerfully to the penalty spot. There, Amine Adli (subbed on for Tella) was able to shoot on the volley, but it was straight at Neuer, who made the save. The rebound fell for Wirtz, who also missed, shooting just wide to the left.

Had Wirtz got the ball on the right side of the post, it would have been a fitting end to a tactical battle in which Alonso had clearly gotten the better of Kompany. In what has become their trademark style, Leverkusen would have taken a late 1-0 lead - and completely reignited the title race. 

"We have mixed feelings," admitted Alonso after the game. "We played our best game against Bayern this year and maybe last year too. I have to give my team a big compliment. We are not so happy with the result, but that's football."

While it will remain a tactical masterpiece by Xabi Alonso, it didn't move the needle in the title race. The Spaniard does, however, get another crack at his old club over two-legs having been pitted against each other in the last-16 of the Champions League.

About the clubs

Bayer 04 Leverkusen

BayArena