Man United walk Champions League tightrope knowing victory over Bayern may not be enough

An array of ultra high-cost defensive excellence lined up at Old Trafford and at Frankfurt’s Waldstadion on Saturday. In Manchester, the most expensive defender in football history, United’s Harry Maguire, in front of the best goalkeeper from last season’s Champions League, Andre Onana.

Over in Germany, the most costly Asian player ever, Kim Min-jae, anchored a Bayern Munich rearguard alongside Dayot Upamecano, whose €43 million move from RB Leipzig two years ago places him in the top half dozen of fees the Bavarians have ever paid. Three of those, Kim among them, are centre-backs.

And a thoroughly chastening weekend it was for all these bearers of high price tags. United conceded three unanswered goals at home to Bournemouth, two of them to headers – Maguire’s chief domain – and all of them from crosses into the United box. Yet compared with Bayern, United seemed almost robust.

At Eintracht Frankfurt, the Bundesliga holders conceded five times in the opening hour, with individual errors spread evenly between Kim, Upamecano, and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, perhaps the greatest gloveman of the 21st century. Neuer finished the afternoon on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline.

All of which raises anticipation around Tuesday’s visit by Bayern to United in the Champions League, a group stage match-day six showdown with the quality of a knockout tie for the Red Devils, whose hopes of rising from the bottom of Group A and into second place behind Bayern hinge on a home win.

That would at least keep them in Europe into the new year, but perhaps only via relegation to the Europa League. Only if a victory over Bayern is coupled with a convenient draw in the group’s other game between FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray can United clamber into