Nagelsmann, Upamecano & Co. on the first pre-season friendly

Bayern were beaten 3-2 by 1. FC Köln in their first pre-season friendly of the summer on Saturday. Taking charge of his first game as FCB boss, new head coach Julian Nagelsmann was missing the majority of international players, so gave a number of youth players a chance. “Considering the squad, it was good. In terms of the chances, a draw would’ve been deserved,” the coach said in summary. fcbayern.com has all the reaction to the match in Villingen.

Reaction to the game

Julian Nagelsmann: “The first friendly is always interesting to see what the boys have taken on board. Considering the squad, it was good. In terms of the chances, a draw would’ve been deserved. We had good moments going forward, we created the goals nicely. We had problems at crosses and deep balls. We need to take some more steps on that. That’s normal for the current level and it’s bearable, but of course we would’ve liked to win. All in all, it was an entertaining friendly match. We’ve now got a normal week of training, then in the fourth week we’ve got three friendly matches with the same squad. A large part of the boys are coming back on 26 July, but they have to do their tests first. After that, it’s about integrating the national team players and getting the routines right as quickly as possible.“

Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting: “First of all, it’s a great feeling that we could play in front of fans again. There were a lot of positives. We played with a lot of young players against a good Köln team, who’ve also been in training a while longer. It was a good test for us. Of course, we wanted to win the game, but we’ll take the positives. It’s fun to play with the young players. You can see there’s a lot of quality there. I’m really looking forward to the season.“

Dayot Upamecano: “I had a very good feeling with my new team and am happy to have played my first game. We talked a lot on the pitch. I had a good feeling. The people are all very nice. The result isn’t good. We want to do better in the next game.”

Sven Ulreich: “It’s annoying when you lose. We always go out on the pitch to win, even though we have a very young team at the moment. On top of that, it was our first game after the break. You could tell Köln had an advantage because they’d already had a few games. But it’s good for the boys to gain experience. Of course, there are a few things we have to do better. The new signings had a good debut. Omar is very nimble down the flank and has good control of the ball. Upa’s very much about robustness and tackles. It’s also not easy for them to find their feet in the team when there are no regular first-team players there. So, they did very well and will surely get a few more games as well.”

Opposition reaction

Steffen Baumgart (Köln coach): “It was a very intense game from both teams. You saw good moments on both sides. We know Bayern didn’t play with their best side – for us it was all about intensity. The boys were very committed. I saw both teams play well, both had a lot of tempo.”

Mark Uth (Köln): “We’re very happy that the fans are there. We’ve missed that recently. It’s even nicer to win against Bayern, of course we can appreciate that.”

Read about the game in our match report: