Bayern are through to the second round of the German Cup, but not without an almighty fight in a thrilling 4-3 win away to third division Erfurt. “We committed too many mistakes in defence and made life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves,“ Jürgen Klinsmann commented after his first competitive game in charge. “There are a few things we need to discuss,“ captain Mark van Bommel added.
Reaction to Rot-Weiss Erfurt v Bayern:
Uli Hoeneß: “We knew Erfurt would rise above themselves, but I didn’t expect us to stand aside and let them shoot at goal the way we did. Our players may have subconsciously believed we’d have an easy ride, especially when it came to defending. It ’s worked out fine today, whenever we let one in we came back at them and scored another of our own, but that won’t do against the better teams.“
Jürgen Klinsmann: “It was never going to be easy. We committed too many mistakes in defence and made life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves. I think we didn’t take it seriously enough after getting the early lead, and we were punished for it. But we’re through to the next round and that’s what counts. It was good to find out where we stand after five intense weeks of training, although our Euro 2008 players aren’t up to speed yet. We can draw a lot of minor conclusions from the match, and we’ll deal with them in training over the coming week.“
Mark van Bommel: “That certainly wasn’t good, but you’ve got to be satisfied with a 4-3 win. But we can’t be happy with the way we played and the manner in which we conceded goals. There are a few things we need to discuss. When you concede three equalisers you have to stay calm, and that’s what we’ve done.
Karsten Baumann (Erfurt coach): “Obviously I can’t be happy with the result, but I want to praise my team, because my lads battled until they dropped. Scoring three goals against Bayern is just terrific. Plenty of Bundesliga teams aren’t going to manage that.“
Massimo Cannizzaro (Erfurt): “We’ve played very well tonight, although it’s obviously disappointing to score three goals against Bayern and still lose.“
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