Wehen Wiesbaden had invited a special guest for their 100th anniversary, arranging a friendly against Germany’s record champions. Over 12,000 people came to watch the double winners at the BRITA-Arena as Bayern arrived for their first friendly match of 2026/27 pre-season, sporting their brand-new away kits and taking to the pitch with a starting XI that had an average age of only 17.6 years. “Lots of the boys had never played against grown men,” said Christoph Freund to FC Bayern TV PLUS during half-time. Bayern’s sporting director also wasn’t too concerned by the 1-0 deficit, adding, “They’ve held their own, had good spells. It was decent and we created chances. It’s valuable experience for these young guys.”

Biggest names still to return

Ultimately, that’s what the game was about from a Bayern perspective. Nine weeks on from the team’s final competitive fixture of last season – lifting the DFB Cup in Berlin – the squad had returned for pre-season training at Säbener Straße on Monday, only without any of the players who’d been involved in the summer’s World Cup. Although the fans in Wiesbaden would’ve liked to have seen those big names, they are still on holiday after a long season and will steadily return over the coming weeks. In their absence, a host of players from the FC Bayern Campus had bolstered the numbers in training and now got their chance to make their case to Vincent Kompany in a real match. “Who knows? Maybe some of them can catch the eye. That’s why we have games like this,” the coach had said.

First and foremost, though, the Belgian was simply glad to be on the touchline again. “I’m happy we’re back. Obviously we still don’t have any players here who were at the World Cup, but it’s an opportunity for the other players. Wiesbaden made things tough for us in the cup last season, so it’s a good test for the young players,” the coach added prior to kick-off.

The 11 teenagers he selected to start originally had difficulties against a team of professionals from Germany’s third division, including Florian Stritzel, who remains the only goalkeeper to have saved a Harry Kane penalty for Bayern when his heroics saw the Reds have to battle to a 3-2 win in the first round of last season’s DFB Cup. Stritzel himself was only on the bench at the start, but his deputy wasn’t particularly troubled by Bayern’s youngsters, who were perhaps slightly nervous about the occasion while still trying to express themselves.

Experience for second half

Kompany made sweeping changes for the second half, including Tom Bischof as he featured in his new No.8 shirt for the first time. Sacha Boey, João Palhinha, Arijon Ibrahimović also came on following their return from loan spells, plus Maycon Cardozo, who broke into the senior squad last season. Of the XI that started the game, only Guido Della Rovere (19 years old) and Bastian Assomo (16) had ever appeared in a first-team matchday squad before. Sven Ulreich in goal captained the team in the second period.

“We had an extreme situation like this last year after the Club World Cup, but everyone had returned at the same time then. We don’t have that this time, but we won’t complain. We know when we need to be at 100 percent, but we won’t lower the bar with the younger players,” said Kompany of pre-season. The introduced experience was very noticeable after the break as Bayern moved the ball with greater control and got forward more. Still, youngster Tim Binder in particular was a lively outlet and won the penalty that Bischof converted to make it 1-1. “It was definitely clear to me today that I’d take it. I’ve practised a lot of penalties lately and am pleased it worked out,” said Bischof after scoring Bayern’s first goal of 2026/27.

However, Wiesbaden didn’t want to be overshadowed on their milestone anniversary and snatched what turned out to be the winner as Ulreich spilled a shot and Lukas Schleimer tucked the ball away. “We controlled the game for long periods. We maybe lacked a bit of movement, which is normal after just one week of training. The boys are doing well on the whole. I’ve had times like this before, and it’s always better to train with 30 players rather than four. But I’m also excited about the guys coming back from the World Cup. They’re a great group,” Bischof concluded.

Youthful Bayern beaten in opening friendly

The first of those players will return from their post-World Cup holidays on Monday and join the squad at their training camp at Tegernsee, which includes open training sessions on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, before another friendly against local side Rottach-Egern. The team then head to Asia for the Audi Summer Tour on Saturday.

Bischof: 'We could’ve won it'