Aaron Danks took Bayern to Freiburg without Kompany, and a 3-1 win put them back above Dortmund
Upamecano, Gnabry and Olise scored as Bayern Munich won 3-1 at Freiburg on Sunday with assistant Aaron Danks in charge, two days after Vincent Kompany collapsed at the club’s training ground.
Oct 26, 2026
Vincent Kompany was still in hospital on Sunday, and he did not take long to get in touch. When Aaron Danks, the assistant who took charge of Bayern Munich at the Europa-Park Stadion, checked his phone after the 3-1 win at SC Freiburg, there was already a message from his manager.
“I just opened my phone to a WhatsApp from Vince straight away, saying ‘well done’, and he was happy,” Danks said. His reply was “Brilliant, now rest”, with a kissing emoji.
The win put Bayern back on top of the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund had gone above them by beating Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Both sides now have 17 points from seven games, and Bayern are first on goal difference.
Upamecano starts it, Gnabry reaches 100
Dayot Upamecano opened the scoring in the 16th minute. The centre-back won the ball near his own box, played it to Michael Olise, kept going and finished past Freiburg goalkeeper Mio Backhaus at the other end.
Serge Gnabry made it 2-0 three minutes before half-time, after a one-two with Nathaniel Brown. It was his 100th Bundesliga goal.
Freiburg did not go away. Harry Kane headed over from close range soon after the restart, and with under ten minutes left Jordy Makengo’s low cross went in off Bayern’s Tom Bischof. Matthias Ginter then had a late header saved by Jonas Urbig.
The third goal came in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Backhaus gave the ball away in his own half and Olise rolled it into an empty net.
For a side whose manager had been taken to hospital two days earlier, it was tidy work, at least until the last ten minutes. “We had to show a bit of resilience, a bit of character, and I thought we defended those moments quite well,” Danks said.
Urbig in for Neuer
Danks made five changes from Wednesday’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal in the Champions League. Urbig started because Manuel Neuer has a foot problem, and Danks could not say how long it would keep him out. “He had a small aggravation in his foot. It depends on how much time that takes to settle,” he said, though he did not expect it to take long.
Freiburg, who had played Monaco in the Conference League on Thursday, also made five changes. They stay third on 13 points.
Kompany still in hospital
Kompany collapsed on Friday while watching Bayern’s reserve team train. The club say he is stable and still having tests, and sporting director Max Eberl said on Saturday that his absence would be a matter of weeks, not days. Before kick-off, Danks told DAZN that the signs were positive and that Kompany was feeling a little better every day.
The week ahead does not get easier. Magdeburg come to Munich in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday, and Dortmund visit on Saturday, 31 October, with first place at stake.