They could have hidden behind objective statistics or claimed it was just pure bad luck – up front and at the back. But the result outshone everything. So the self-criticism was also very to the point after the Black-Yellow 1-5 defeat in Munich, the biggest defeat in six years.

 

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Robert Lewandowski versetzte Lukasz Piszczek und Co. mit seinen beiden Toren in der zweiten Halbzeit den K.O.

“Team captain Mats Hummels said: “you can lose in Munich. But the fact that in the end we conceded five goals does hurt.” Thomas Tuchel criticised: “we just made it too easy for Bayern. I would have hoped that if we do concede goals, that they wouldn’t have been such easy goals to concede.” Gonzalo Castro: “the defeat was a little too high everything considered, because the goals came from nothing. However Munich deserved to win.”

Five to one! And this after 25 minutes where BVB was tactically in tune, fought hard and played very strong, when Borussia’s 4-4-2 system caused disarray for Bayern and Dortmund was especially strong over the right hand side with Piszczek and Mkhitaryan. Bayern Head Coach Pep Guardiola said: “we had difficulties to adapt to their diamond shape in midfield in the first 15 minutes. We lost a lot of easy balls in that period.”

The rearranged defence was rock solid up to that point in time. Sokratis had Costa under control, Bender won six out seven challenges in the heart of defence in the first half, Hummels even won every challenge he went for. Tuchel added: “we started the game well. During our best spell of the match we had possibilities in the last 20 metres of the pitch to create dangerous chances on goal, but we didn’t manage to achieve this. Someone either got a leg in there somewhere or we didn’t make the right decision.”

„You can’t make mistakes like this, not in Munich“

At least it was 1-2 at half-time, because Aubameyang finished off a brilliant counter attack over Mkhitaryan and Castro. This was after the team from Munich scored from their first chance in the match and Müller then converted a debatable penalty to make it 2-0. Castro said: “I don’t know if that was a penalty or not. However the referee decided on penalty and that’s part and parcel of the game.” His Head Coach was far more concerned about how the penalty came about and criticised his own defence: “we should have defended the counter attack much better. We lacked a fool-proof safety net.” He listed “three mistakes” in how the 2-0 came into being, “you can’t make mistakes like this, not in Munich.”

The first and the third goal that they conceded were especially annoying, where both goals came from long balls by Boateng from his own half. And this had been something they spoke about before the game! Hummels said: “our tactics were very clear not to let Boateng and Alaba play freely and not to allow these long balls. I don’t know exactly how this didn’t work out in both cases, why Boateng was allowed to play without being put under any pressure. We stood quite high up the pitch here. But there again this was – in theory – our aim coupled with putting the opponent under pressure. If the opponent is then not put under any pressure, this can of course be deadly. Bayern then were brilliant in the way they took advantage of this after both of these sensational passes.”

Tuchel moaned: “the pass before the 1-3 was one of the worst case scenarios you can be confronted with: a 40 metre high ball over ten of your own players”. However Tuchel did not include his goalkeeper in the criticism: “Roman can’t do anything in a situation like this. Because the balls are not played into space, but are played to feet.”

 

Guardiola has the highest praise for the opponent

The first defeat in the 15.competitive match of the season cannot hide the fact that the team has performed very well in the first quarter of the season, regardless of how high the defeat was. Even if the team has only won two points from the last three games and the trend is looking downwards, 17 points after 8 league games is a great achievement. There have only been four occasions when the team had more points at this stage of the season (three times 19, one time 21).

Pep Guardiola said at his post-match press conference: “we won against one of the best teams in Europe. Dortmund is not just a counter attacking team. If we let them run the game, it’s over for us. They are a machine. It is not easy to win against BVB. I am very satisfied. The difference was our third goal.” The goal right after the half-time break shifted the pendulum in this top of the table clash definitely in favour of Bayern. This match was played at the top level and met the expectations in full. Tuchel said: “we prepared ourselves so that we would win this match. Now we have to accept that we suffered a heavy defeat.” Boris Rupert