Just three days after a knife-edge draw against Getafe in the UEFA Cup, Bayern oozed class against Borussia Dortmund and moved ten points clear at the top of the Bundesliga. Particularly in the first half hour, Ottmar Hitzfeld’s men played “football to take your breath away,” Uli Hoeneß enthused, although the general manager warned that the outcome was no real guide to next week’s German Cup final between the sides in Berlin: “That’ll be a completely different game.“
Reaction to Bayern v Borussia Dortmund:
Uli Hoeneß: “I think it’s been a long time since we’ve seen such a terrific half-hour. That was football to take your breath away. Each of the first four goals was worth the admission money, they were flowing moves, there were no lucky breaks, it was fantastic and obviously good for us. We knew we’d never be able to keep it up for 90 minutes, but the team sensibly gave it all they had for the first half hour, and it was in the bag. But we can’t regard this match as any guide to the Cup final, that’ll be a completely different game. We’ve taken another step towards the title today, we’re ten points clear and we only have three away games left. I don’t think a lot can go wrong now.“
Franz Beckenbauer: “Dortmund let Bayern do what they wanted, and if you allow that, they can’t be stopped. They’ll start scoring goals, in this case four of them. The sparkle faded after 25 minutes, but overall Bayern were dynamic in a way they’ve not been recently, so it was enjoyable to watch today.“
Ottmar Hitzfeld: “The late equaliser in Getafe helped us, it was a real shot in the arm, and we were pumped with adrenalin from it today. We went out there determined to enjoy ourselves. We kept the tempo high, we let the ball do the work and we took all our chances in the opening phase. But we won’t read too much into the match. We know we’ve played well, and we can go into next Saturday’s match with plenty of confidence.“
Thomas Doll (Dortmund coach): “It was 4-0 after just 25 minutes, which makes me wonder why we bothered coming to Munich. We lacked commitment and passion, and it turned into a slaughter. None of my players showed their true potential. We forgot the basics of the game on the day. I never want to see that from my team again. I have to see a very different performance against Hanover in midweek. All I can do is apologise to Borussia Dortmund supporters everywhere.“
Florian Kringe (Dortmund): “I don’t know what we were doing in the first half, but it had nothing to do with football. We didn’t turn up, we didn’t tackle, and we deserved to be four down after 25 minutes. It was already over at that point. Everyone knows Bayern are good, so if you let them play football, that’s what they’ll do. We practically begged them to do it. In that case, we needn’t bother coming here again, we can stay at home in bed.“
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