On Wednesday night, Bayern Munich will have a rematch against Arsenal in the Champions League 2023/24 quarter-finals. And the Bavarians had a perfect warm-up as they defeated Cologne, and coach Thomas Tuchel has reaped significant positive points.

Firstly, it’s the high and consistent attacking performance of the forward line. In one of the rare rounds where the main striker Harry Kane did not score, Bayern still secured a victory. This indicates that the Bavarians are not overly reliant on the goals of the England captain. Against Cologne, Kane wasted many clear opportunities, especially two shots hitting the crossbar and one going wide when goalkeeper Marvin Schwabe could only watch helplessly.

However, two goals from Raphael Guerreiro and Thomas Muller brought a 2-0 victory for the home team at the Allianz Arena, ensuring Bayern’s frontline maintains an impressive and stable scoring record with 28 goals in the last 10 matches. This gives confidence to coach Tuchel’s team ahead of the upcoming clash with Arsenal this midweek. The second harvest of the German coach is Joshua Kimmich regaining his form in the right-back position.

Once again, the German international excelled in his preferred position, being one of Bayern’s highest-rated players on the field in this match with an impressive passing accuracy of 94%. He continuously penetrated the Cologne defense with unexpected forward runs, overlapping with Kingsley Coman in the first half before the French player got injured.

The presence of Aleksandar Pavlovic allowed Kimmich to return to his familiar right-back position and shine. He was the one who provided the assist for his opposite wing partner Guerreiro to open the scoring for Bayern against Cologne. Next season, regardless of who Bayern’s coach is, the most urgent task is to convince Kimmich to stay at the Allianz Arena at all costs, while granting him the “power” in the right-back position. It’s no coincidence that Bayern won the Champions League in 2019/20 with Kimmich at right-back – the player who provided the assist for Coman’s winning goal against PSG in the final.

Tel promises to be Bayern’s dangerous spark from now until the end of the season.

Another positive point is the performance of Mathys Tel. The 18-year-old French player is a highly anticipated spark. Tel has played over 1,000 minutes this season. To be precise, 1059 minutes, including 676 minutes in the Bundesliga (scoring 5 goals, providing 3 assists), 139 minutes in the Champions League, and 244 minutes in domestic cup competitions. However, what’s worth mentioning is that amidst the frequent injuries of the current wingers (Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman), Tel will have more opportunities to play from now until the end of the season.

Tel’s speed and dribbling skills will make Bayern’s attacking play more direct and dynamic. However, the French player still needs to learn how to shoot and dribble more effectively to help the Bavarian giants finish this season in the most optimistic way, especially aiming for potential Champions League victory or the furthest possible progress in this premier European competition.