“It was one big individual mistake too many”
Bayern Munich lost 3-0 at Manchester City. The entry into the semi-finals is a long way off. “The second goal cost us a lot of self-confidence,” says coach Thomas Tuchel.
The risk of separating from Julian Nagelsmann does not pay off at first: Bayern go under in Manchester and may have lost the second chance for the title. At the subsequent banquet, CEO Oliver Kahn made an appeal to the players.
IThey had set up quarters in the Clocktower Hotel in Manchester. The festive ballroom was reserved for the banquet that followed the 0-3 (0-1) loss at Manchester City in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Oliver Kahn, the CEO of FC Bayern, rose on Wednesday night and spoke to the players present, the coaching team, the supervisors and invited guests.
Kahn swore the team to a football feat in the second leg. “Yeah, it doesn’t look so good. But I’ve experienced incredible things in football,” said Kahn in his nightly speech after the first leg in Manchester. “We have a duty to throw in everything that’s possible in this second leg.”
Frugal looks: sports director Salihamidzic and club boss Kahn in the stands in Manchester
Source: dpa/Tom Weller
The clear defeat against the premier class favorites of the former Munich coach Pep Guardiola hurt – and was still difficult to grasp for the Bayern delegation with oysters, beef wellington or quinoa power salad on Wednesday night. On the one hand, the eleven, who started the game without captain Thomas Müller, sniffed at the equalizer when Leroy Sané shot from distance. On the other hand, they could have suffered an even bigger defeat. The game was a “bit disgusting to analyze”, said captain Thomas Müller.
And so Leon Goretzka sounded a bit more sober than club boss Kahn. “We will learn from it again, get up and try everything in the second leg. But of course it’s a miserable starting position,” said the national player.
Müller speaks of a “punch in the pit of the stomach”
After the end of the cup, there is not much to be said for another round of Munich in Europe’s best league. The result gave Bayern “a punch in the stomach,” said Müller, who surprisingly initially sat on the bench in this special quality test. “Of course everyone wants to be there,” said Müller. But especially as a captain, it’s not about individual questions. “It’s a decision you’re not super happy with, but you can handle it very well.”
That was less easy with the result a week after the cup defeat against SC Freiburg. Even without a chance at the cup title and after a bad result in the Champions League, you could see “that we’re playing good football,” said sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic. “We need a bit of time, including the team with the new coach.”
The risk of separating from Julian Nagelsmann does not pay off, at least for this season. “Nevertheless, I believe that we will still benefit a lot from the new coach,” said Joshua Kimmich about Tuchel, who praised his team extensively despite the bitter defeat.
And so the coach should have liked the late words of his new boss. They want to try everything, said Kahn with a view to the second leg next Wednesday in their own stadium. He added that the aim was to show the fans “all over the world” “that we are not too disappointed and give up, but that we are trying to throw everything in in the second leg”.
