It was not to be for Bayern on a night when the champions dominated the play and created a string of good openings away to Kaiserslautern, but still suffered a first defeat of the season. “We did everything we could to win it in the second half, but it was one of those days when it’s just not enough,” Louis van Gaal commented after the 2-0 reverse against the promoted club. “It's a game we’d normally have ended up winning," reflected captain Mark van Bommel.
Reaction to Kaiserslautern v Bayern:
Louis Van Gaal: “We played well up until the last attacking phase, which I like to call the fourth phase. We needed more of an edge. We got into our opponents’ box often enough, but we didn’t create that many chances, apart from Müller’s huge chance, where we were three on one and it had to be a goal. Lautern closed down the space very well and threw their hearts and souls into it. They were fantastic in that respect, but they only had two shots at our goal, although the first was an unbelievably good goal. We did everything we could to win it in the second half, but it was one of those days when it’s just not enough.“
Mark van Bommel: “That was unnecessary. We actually didn’t play that badly, and we created all kinds of chances, but we didn’t put them away. And then, just when we were having a good spell, they hit us twice on the break and scored because we made errors. That's irritating and unnecessary. It may sound a little odd, but it's a game we’d normally have ended up winning.“
Philipp Lahm: “We’d hoped for a lot better than that. We were the better team for 90 minutes and made the better chances, but what use is that? It wasn’t to be today. If you lose, you’ve clearly done something wrong. It would have been much easier if we’d taken the lead. We knew it would be tough, we knew Kaiserslautern would play with lots of passion, but I think we resisted them perfectly well. But you’ve got to score.“
Miroslav Klose: “I was hoping for more from us. We played reasonably well and created chances, but we were out of luck. We knew it would be difficult if we went a goal down. If we had scored, we’d have gone on to equalise, but we kept coming up inches short – and that’s annoying.“
Marco Kurz (FCK coach): “An unbelievable evening for us. I think big hearts and strong wills won it tonight. What an amazing gift, beating the reigning champions together with our fans. We did plenty of things right in the first half. The pivotal moment was the huge chance for Müller. We had to survive that first. After half-time, we defended with everything we had, and our keeper was on good form too. As I said before the match, if everything comes together, you have a chance against Bayern. And a lot of things came together tonight.“
Ivo licevic (FCK scorer): “We wanted to put on a show in our first home match and see if we could match Bayern. I think we did that pretty well, and we can say we deserved to win. We waited patiently for our chances, they duly came along, and we took them. We made life very difficult for Bayern, and we have to keep it up in our forthcoming matches.“
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