Singh makes first start for German giants
Sarpreet Singh’s football career took another step forward yesterday as he made his first Bundesliga start for German champions Bayern Munich.
With the league title stored away for another year after a midweek win, Bayern coach Hansi Flick made five changes for the clash with SC Freiburg, giving the 21-year-old All Whites midfielder the nod on the left flank.
Singh had his first proper touch four minutes in at the club’s Allianz Arena home in Munich and went close to making a dream start when he unleashed a rocket of a shot in the 13th minute that went out for a corner after hitting a Freiburg defender.
As the first half progressed, he did not look out of place, playing in an attacking quartet alongside international stars Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mu¨ ller and fellow youngster Mickae¨l Cuisance, a French agegroup international who also joined Bayern last year.
Goals to Joshua Kimmich and Lewandowski gave Bayern a 2-0 lead midway through the period, and Lewandowski struck again after Lucas Ho¨ ler pulled one back for Freiburg to make it 3-1 at the break. Singh was replaced in the 64th minute by French international Kingsley Coman, bringing his second outing in the Bundesliga to an end, and there was no further scoring action.
His first outing was an eightminute run off the bench against Werder Bremen in December.
Bayern have one match remaining in their Bundesliga campaign, against Wolfsburg next Sunday (kickoff 1.30am NZ time).
After that, they have the German cup final, against Bayer Leverkusen, and the rest of their Uefa Champions League campaign.
It was a year ago this coming week that the German super club’s interest in Singh first emerged, ahead of him signing a three-year deal at the start of July.
Singh has featured regularly for their reserves in 3.Liga, scoring seven goals in 22 appearances.