Bayern cemented their grip on top spot in the Bundesliga with a prestige 3-0 victory away to arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund in the big clash of the weekend. Pep Guardiola said he was “pleased, because we’ve beaten the best counter-attacking team in the world.” Manuel Neuer thought he and his team-mates were well worth the three points: “We deserved to win the match.” As for on-fire Arjen Robben, he simply “enjoyed” the high octane showdown.
Reaction to Dortmund v Bayern
Matthias Sammer: “We’re delighted and proud, but when we analyse the match we have to be realistic. Borussia Dortmund gave a fantastic account of themselves and pushed us to the limit. We also had that little bit of luck you need at times. We’re delighted we have a player as good as Thiago back in the team and we hope the others such as Franck will be available again soon. But for now we’re happy with the win.”
Pep Guardiola: “We’re pleased because we’ve beaten the best counter-attacking team in the world. We played very well for the first 15 minutes, but not for the remaining 30 in the first half. We were better with Thiago, Mario Götze, Toni Kroos and Philipp Lahm in midfield after half-time.“
Manuel Neuer: “We deserved to win the match and we take the three points back home with us with a clear conscience. We never lost our composure and we were well organised. We wanted to deny Dortmund the chance to launch their dangerous counter attacks and we did well in this respect.“
Arjen Robben: “We shouldn’t read too much into the result. It was 1-0 until five minutes from time. It looks like a clear-cut victory, but Dortmund had chances too. We used the space well at the end and I reckon we deserved to win. As a boy you dream of playing games like this in stadiums like this. I enjoyed it.“
Jürgen Klopp (BVB coach): “The fact the second and third goals don’t reflect the play isn’t the decisive factor. Bayern changed their tactics and played a lot of long balls. They were patient. I think we had better chances before the opening goal, and we had a huge opportunity to equalise. Obviously we have to be taking one of our chances.“
Roman Weidenfeller (BVB captain): “Games are won and lost with goals - and at the moment we’re not scoring the crucial goals, because we’re simply not determined enough. Sometimes you just have to toe-end it over the line and force it home. Instead we’re taking an extra touch, we’re trying to control it on our chests, play another square ball - but you don’t have time for that in the Bundesliga. At the end of the day the margin of defeat is irrelevant. We’re gutted because we played very well for more than 80 minutes but weren’t rewarded.“
Manuel Friedrich (BVB): “If someone had told me three weeks ago I’d return to the Bundesliga in a game like this.. it’s an amazing feeling! I’m just incredibly sorry I couldn’t be of more help today. I don’t think we deserved to lose by that score because we did really well defensively. I think our heads subconsciously went down after the opening goal, and Bayern were ruthless at the end. They’re playing really good football at the moment and every player knows what the others are going to do.“
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