Kim Min-jae Plays Full Match... Bayern Munich Secures Big Win in DFB-Pokal First Round

South Korean national team defender Kim Min-jae started and played the full 90 minutes as German professional football club Bayern Munich comfortably passed the first hurdle of the DFB-Pokal.

Bayern cruised to a 4-1 victory over 2. Bundesliga side VfL Osnabrück in the first round of the 2026-2027 DFB-Pokal away match held at the Stadion an der Bremer Brücke in Osnabrück, Germany, on September 3 (KST).

Starting alongside Jonathan Tah in central defense, Kim reaffirmed his solid standing within the team by making his third consecutive start in official matches this season.

Having played the full match in the German Supercup and 84 minutes in the Bundesliga opening match, Kim once again guarded the pitch until the final whistle without being substituted.

Bayern fell behind just five minutes into the first match when Robin Meissner scored a surprise wonder goal.

Meissner unleashed a thunderous right-footed shot from well outside the penalty box, which accurately struck the top right corner of the Bayern goal, leaving no time to react.

However, stung by the early blow, Bayern immediately mounted a counterattack.

"Goal machine" Harry Kane leveled the score 13 minutes later, bringing the match back to parity, and Tom Bischof netted the go-ahead goal six minutes after that to instantly turn the game around.

Bayern's offensive onslaught continued into the second half.

Michael Olise perceptively spotted the advancing opposing goalkeeper's position and skillfully chipped the ball with his left foot to ripple the back of the net, widening the gap.

Later in the 41st minute of the second half, Kane sealed the victory with a penalty kick, completing his multi-goal performance.

A foul was called after Osnabrück's Müller tripped Aleksandar Pavlović inside the penalty area.

Despite Müller's fierce protests, the referee's decision remained firm.

Stepping up as the kicker, Kane used his trademark stutter-step run-up to fire a right-footed shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Osnabrück goalkeeper Julian Krumrey read the direction and dove, but failed to reach the ball.

Kim, who securely guarded the backline that day, recorded a high pass success rate of 98 percent (completing 88 out of 90 attempts).

He also recorded an 83 percent ground duel success rate (5 successes out of 6 attempts) and a total of six defensive actions, including five tackles.

Football statistics specialist outlet FotMob awarded Kim a rating of 7.7 for his stable performance.

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.