Bayern Munich missed their Champions League quarter-final first leg at Villareal (1-0 defeat), but are preparing on Tuesday to “punish” their opponent for having “left him alive”, the coach warned on Monday Bavarian Julian Nagelsmann.
The stage is set. “We made a lot of mistakes on the way out. They did one: let us live. And we have to punish them for that.”dropped the young technician, in an allusion to the scenario of the first round last Wednesday, where the Spanish team could have scored three or even four goals, without crying foul.
Asked about the reasons to believe it, captain Manuel Neuer mentioned in a pre-match press conference “willingness” you Bavaria. “We have character in this team, a lot of pride”he said, “When we lost a first leg, you shouldn’t joke with us”. “On the way out, we were even more dissatisfied with our performance than with the result. The best news is that we only lost 1-0.”he added.
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How to turn the situation around? “We are going to have to put a lot more intensity”assured Nagelsmann, who intends to establish as a priority “players who are already familiar with this type of situation and who have (…) a + Bayern + identity, because they have been at the club for a long time”.
“The stakes are high, and we must invest a lot”he said, implicitly admitting that a quarter-final elimination against a presumed weaker opponent would be experienced as a failure in his first season at the club.
Bayern executives almost all present
While his team remains on several disappointing matches, Nagelsmann admitted that “Not everyone is at their best right now.” “But it’s normal in the course of a season, he added, we will have to mobilize some German virtues in this match”. Almost all of the team’s executives will be available. Only central back Niklas Süle, victim of the flu, Corentin Tolisso (muscle tear), Eric Maxime Choupo-Moting (return to training after injury) and Bouna Sarr (patellar tendon) will be missing.
