Fourth highest premier class bankruptcy
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Sports director Max Eberl reacted thinly to critical questions after the dismantling of FC Bayern Munich in the Champions League game at FC Barcelona. After the violent 1:4 (see detailed match report), the 51-year-old even snapped at a reporter when he pointed out mistakes by central defenders Dayot Upamecano and Min-jae Kim in the catacombs of the Olympic Stadium with the words: “Get a coaching license.”
Eberl defended himself against fundamental criticism, for example of coach Vincent Kompany’s style of play, the defense or the performance of individual players. “It’s so cheap to blame it on the defense when we concede goals. And when Harry Kane scores a goal, it’s just Harry Kane. They want to divide us apart – and we won’t allow that.”
As a result of the first defeat against FC Barcelona after six wins in a row and the fourth-highest defeat in the premier class, Eberl gave the protective shield to the outside world. “We defend what we do and individual players.” He classified the defeat as “learning.” CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen made similar comments in his nightly banquet speech in the team hotel: “Vincent and his team will draw the right conclusions. The most important thing is that we stand together. (…) We have played impressive football in the last few games and I am sure that this impressive football will lead to the desired results.”
In the press conference, Kompany spoke of a “tough result. (…) There are zero excuses. There is only one clear defeat. Congratulations to Barça. They are a top team in Europe, so that’s no surprise.” He wants to learn from the evening very quickly, but the Belgian absolutely wants to stick to his style of football: “You look for success in your path. We will stand together and learn from this game, that will not decide our season.”
“Harakiri”: This is how FC Bayern’s leading players reacted to the 4-1 defeat
Sixth player Joshua Kimmich criticized the team performance and the direction of the game: “The game wasn’t 4-1. But it was still a deserved defeat. It’s partly hara-kiri what we did.” Among other things, hat-trick Raphinha scored Bayern’s fastest goal in Champions League history since 1992 after 56 seconds. “In general, we didn’t work cleanly enough, made too many mistakes and then we end up with a very, very clear and bitter result. It’s a deserved defeat.”
Captain Manuel Neuer said: “Barça plays with risk, we play with risk, it’s clear that these things can happen, we already saw that against Frankfurt, that it can hurt us. We made mistakes and should have been more aggressive in terms of aggression, which you have to show, especially in midfield, against strong teams like Barça. We missed the cleanliness.”
Thomas Müller was not very happy about the fact that with his 153rd appearance in the Champions League he left Karim Benzema behind and is now alone in fourth place in the record player ranking (on the statistics): “Of course it’s not a good feeling (that defeat; editor’s note). We came here to win but lost 4-1, so there’s still a lot of work to do. (…) I say it seemed like we lost confidence just because we didn’t press the way we wanted. We didn’t have the possession and control we wanted. We didn’t play the way we could play, that’s what I meant. Maybe it’s only human to get up after a 4-1 defeat and try again, but it’s not that easy.”
At Bayern after slap “no worries” about the round of 16
Despite the second defeat in a row and falling to 23rd place in the new Champions League league system, Eberl said that he was “not worried” about reaching the round of 16: “That is the new mode. That decision will only be made on the eighth matchday, not on the third.”
In addition, it was the fifth winless away game in the premier class in a row across the season. After all: There are now two home games against Benfica Lisbon and Paris Saint-Germain. Bayern boss Dreesen spoke of “difficult tasks”, but also expressed further confidence: “We can still get into the top eight – and that is our goal.” The teams in places one to eight will move straight into the round of 16. The teams in places nine to 24, however, have to complete an additional knockout round.
