Even Max Eberl was surprised! Atalanta Bergamo causes great astonishment against FC Bayern

When asked about the task facing the German record champions in Bergamo, Eberl said that he was "tense" and knew exactly "what we're up against today". He referred to the Italians' strong comeback in the playoff second leg against Borussia Dortmund, during which Atalanta thrashed BVB 4-1.

"We saw the footage and saw how they played against Dortmund. Today," Eberl said in amazement, "they have a surprising line-up. You have to say that."

In contrast to the "miracle" against BVB, Atalanta coach Raffaele Palladino left Lazar Smardzic out of the line-up and switched to a back four, even though Atalanta had just stabilised under Palladino with a back three. Since he took over, they have lost only four of 17 games in Serie A.

However, the "experiment" with a back four, which Palladino had already tried out at the weekend against Udinese (2-2), failed spectacularly on this evening. The German record champions took apart the seventh-placed team in Serie A in the first half, within 13 minutes, using every trick in the book.

Josip Stanisic got the ball rolling after a clever corner variation. Joshua Kimmich saw Serge Gnabry making a quick run and only had to cross to Stanisic (12'). Michael Olise then skilfully placed a long-range shot into the far corner (22'), before setting up Gnabry just three minutes later (25').

"That didn't work at all," said Benedikt Höwedes, an expert commentator on Amazon Prime, but he also pointed out that Bayern had found the ideal tactical antidote to Atalanta's planned aggressive one-on-one play across the entire pitch. This was the almost detached positioning of the Bayern players.

For example, Jonathan Tah appeared on the left wing in the first half, and Dayot Upamecano was completely unmarked after a 30-metre solo run because his teammates pulled his opponents away from him with deep runs. According to Höwedes, Gnabry in particular deserved "an A with a star" in the first half.

World champion and Prime expert Christoph Kramer, meanwhile, showed understanding for Palladino's risky approach with a back four and high pressing in one-on-one situations. "The approach is still not bad. If you want to beat Bayern this season, you need to apply high pressure and do it in a man-oriented way," said Kramer, but in the same breath he criticised the implementation of strikers Gianluca Scamacca and Nikola Krstiovic: "They are doing very poorly at the front. They hardly apply any pressure and keep letting up. That was also the case with the goals they conceded."

At the same time, however, he also joined in with Höwedes' praise of Bayern's approach. "The way they move against this man-oriented approach. It's just hard to defend against, it's annoying, exhausting - especially mentally, when you have to keep following your opponent. Bayern do that excellently," said Kramer.

In the end, Bayern added three more goals in the second half. Michael Olise, Nicolas Jackson and Jamal Musiala pushed the final score to 6-1 (3-0). However, the record champions also had to cope with two setbacks in the formof injuries to Alphonso Davies and Jamal Musiala.