They showed morale, fought back and rewarded themselves! Bayern won 2-1 against Mainz 05 on Saturday despite initially being a goal down. "We made it difficult for ourselves in the first half. You always have these types of games," said Thomas Müller after the final whistle,. After the half, however, Julian Nagelsman saw a clear improvement in performance: "We were really sharp and played power football," the 34-year-old explained. Bayern have now almost certainly secured top spot going into the winter break: "We're six points ahead now. That's really good if we can back up this win with a good performance on Tuesday in Stuttgart."
Reaction from the Bayern camp:
Julian Nagelsmann: "We earned the win today with a lot of effort. Mainz are doing really well at the moment. But the way the game went was also our own fault. We started well, were very strong in the first ten minutes, and then we got sluggish and stopped moving. In the second half, we reacted superbly and were really sharp and played power football. We really wanted to win. We're now six points clear [at the top]. That's really good if we can back up this win with a good performance on Tuesday in Stuttgart."
Manuel Neuer: "We fell behind, we weren't quite up for it, we lacked a bit of physical presence. But in the second half we were really on our game. You could tell that everyone wanted to win and then, fortunately, we equalised. It's crucial that we win our games now. We have three games in our final week [before the winter break]. We've got past the first. Now we're looking forward to the games against Stuttgart and Wolfsburg."
Thomas Müller: "We made it difficult for ourselves in the first half. You always have these types of games. Mainz are great at what they do. They were fully ready for us and were well prepared for when we had players switch roles, for example."
Reaction from the Mainz camp:
Martin Schmidt (1. FSV Mainz 05 sporting director): "In the second half, we lacked big chances in the final third. At the back, unfortunately, we didn't defend consistently and allowed two or three chances. Unfortunately, that is often enough for Bayern."
Bo Svensson (1. FSV Mainz 05 head coach): "We were very, very good in the first half, it went exactly according to plan. Sure, Bayern had chances too, but we deserved to lead at the break. What annoys me is that we didn't execute a few counters properly, if we had we would have had more chances to score. In the second half, we conceded a goal that we can't if we want to pick up points here. It was too cheap. But I'm proud of the boys, of what they delivered here."
Karim Onisiwo (1. FSV Mainz 05): "We didn't manage to keep up our pressure and the tempo. We played well, but Bayern took advantage of our mistakes."
The match report:
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