Guardiola: That was tough

Saturday’s clash in Nuremberg was an authentic derby, with huge commitment, plenty of passion and a spine-tingling atmosphere at the stadium. “I quickly realised why Bayern have only won once in Nuremberg in the last six years,” commented Pep Guardiola after his side’s 2-0 victory, “Congratulations to my players. Our attitude was unbelievable.“

Reaction to FC Nürnberg v Bayern:

Pep Guardiola: “I quickly realised why Bayern have only won once in Nuremberg in the last six years. Nürnberg were extremely aggressive and intense, attacked us at pace and had two or three clear-cut chances. It became a bit easier for us after we went 2-0 up. Congratulations to my players. It was hard to play good football on this pitch, especially our short-passing game. That’s why we had a go with long balls up to our players who are fantastic in the air, like Mandzu. Our attitude was unbelievable.“

Philipp Lahm: “We didn’t start well. And this isn’t an excuse, but the pitch hardly invited us to build from the back with short passes. So we played a long ball game, but we had problems getting hold of the loose balls and knock-downs. They fell more for Nürnberg than for us. We reacted at half-time and we were much improved after the break.“

Gertjan Verbeek (Nürnberg coach): “We started very well and were outstanding for 20 or 25 minutes. We had a few chances. We were able to compensate for the first injured player, but less so for the second. It’s one of Bayern’s qualities that they can fashion a goal from a single chance. We lost our rhythm after that. The first half cost a lot of energy, and our belief wasn’t as strong. It was basically impossible when they made it two straight after half-time.“

Markus Feulner (Nürnberg): “We’ll stick to our chosen path. We’ll keep playing attractive attacking football, as we did in the first 20 minutes today. If we’d scored, it would have been a different match.“