Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge praised a fine battling performance and called on the players to keep pushing for a top spot finish in Champions League Group B, while Bayern coach Felix Magath was especially pleased with his side's attitude at the start: "I really liked the first 20 minutes, when we played some excellent football."
Reaction to Sporting Lisbon v Bayern
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge: "We can all be extremely satisfied. The team played well and worked hard, and even after the sending off, you never had the impression we werer a man down. Let me praise and compliment the team, it was a great team performance and the defence was solid. It's no accident we're top of the group after three matches. If we can beat Sporting again at home in two weeks, we're mathematically through to the next round, but we want to press on and finish top of the group, so we play the first knockout game away from home."
Felix Magath: "I really liked the first 20 minutes, when we played some excellent football. We should have been awarded a penalty for the foul on Claudio Pizarro, and we'd have been 2-0 up. But we lost control of the match and we were under pressure up to half-time. I think Bastian Schweinsteiger's sending off was dubious, because the first booking was unjustified. The game should have simply restarted with a throw-in. His timing was off for the second yellow card, he took his opponent rather than the ball. It's good we have the flexibility to play with three strikers any time we want. We saw that again in the first 20 minutes today."
Claudio Pizarro: "I showed the battling side of my game today. I was alone up front after Schweini was sent off. We tried to keep it tight and try our luck on the break. It should have been a penalty when I was pulled back. I think we kept our shape for the whole match, and it's a big win for us."
Daniel van Buyten: "We played very well for the first 20 to 25 minutes, we created chances and stifled them. But we lost our shape and our aggression afterwards, although we then battled bravely after the red card. We're looking good, we're all fighting for each other, and that's the key to success. It was tough at times but we kept our cool, and we had a couple of chances on the break. We need to maintain our impetus in the Bundesliga, but we're coming along well."
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