DFB Cup holders Bayern overcame the second hurdle in this season’s competition on Wednesday night with an ultimately clear-cut 4-1 victory over Hannover 96, duly booking a place in the last sixteen. “If we take our chances, we’re tough to stop,” said Claudio Pizarro, who followed up Thomas Müller’s opening goal with the second after half an hour. Second-half strikes by Müller and substitute Franck Ribéry sealed a deserved and comfortable victory for the home team.
Reaction to Bayern’s cup victory over Hannover
Pep Guardiola: “We played very well, but in the last ten to 15 minutes of the first half we lost our shape. I’m surprised at the way we played in the second half. It’s our mentality, we just kept attacking. We’ve won a tough game against a great team. I’m surprised by Hannover’s performance. It’s not possible to win trophies with only 11 players. We have lots of good players and all of them are good enough to start.“
Claudio Pizarro: “If we take our chances, we’re tough to stop, but we didn’t play very well after going 2–0 up. We might be able to afford that against Hannover, but against the really big names, the kind of carelessness we showed after going 2-0 up can be fatal.“
Martin Kind (Hannover president): “We had our chances, and we could even have equalised. But ifs and buts don’t count, and you can’t argue with the result. We have a super team, but we played against very strong opponents today. We should simply accept that and move on. The better team won.“
Mirko Slomka (Hannover coach): “We fell behind too early in the match, and when you’re 2–0 behind after 30 minutes, you have a fundamental problem. But we fought our way back into it, and in the first 20 minutes of the second half, you always had the feeling we could make it even more uncomfortable for them. It wasn’t to be, although it was another decent display from us away from home without any reward. As it is, we’re out of the cup.“
Leonardo Bittencourt (Hannover): “We wanted to keep it goalless for as long as possible like we did two weeks ago, but it didn’t work out so well. After we pulled one back, we had chances to equalise. But if you’re to survive here, you have to take your chances.”
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