FC Bayern suffered defeat in their final home game of the season with a 3-1 loss to RB Leipzig, missing out on the chance to move clear of Borussia Dortmund in this tight title race. “It’s completely down to us. We lost this game and because of our conduct,” said head coach Thomas Tuchel after the game. “It’s bad because we no longer have it in our own hands. But the belief is always there. It’s only over when the game in Cologne is over,” added CEO Oliver Kahn. fcbayern.com rounds up the reaction to the game.
Reaction to the game against RB Leipzig
Oliver Kahn, FC Bayern CEO: “We’re disappointed that we’ve given away the huge chance to win the title on our own. We weren’t intelligent today. It got less and less after going 1-0 up. We got countered from a corner and conceded the equaliser. We still had enough time after that, but I didn’t have the feeling we could resist in any big way. It’s bad because we no longer have it in our own hands. But the belief is always there. It’s only over when the game in Cologne is over.”
Hasan Salihamidzic, FC Bayern board member for sport: “I was very optimistic. It was a very good week of training. We had good intensity and stepped it up. We did a lot right this week. But we didn’t resist anymore after half an hour. Today was very disappointing. I always prefer to have things in our own hands, but that’s no longer the case. Now we have to hope, cross our fingers, win our game next week and see what happens.”
Thomas Tuchel: “When you play so far below your own level and the level constantly drops, then it’s tough to win games. The initial period was okay, was enough to go ahead. Then we stopped after 30 minutes. We weren’t there anymore in the second half. We were coming out of a good spell. I see the team train, I see the spirit, the quality in training, the build-up in play, but I don’t have an explanation right now how something like this can happen. It comes down to the little things. You have to be courageous. It’s completely down to us. We lost this game and because of our conduct. But the season isn’t over yet.“
Thomas Müller: “It’s not like Leipzig played us off the park today. In the second half in particular, we were really poor with the ball and in our build-up play, invited them with our own mistakes. They didn’t have many chances – two penalties, plus a counter from a corner, which says it all. We now need to make sure we put this setback behind us. We’ve still got a game next week. If we win that, then Dortmund have the big pressure, because they have to win both games. They need to do that first. If they do it, then congratulations. But until then, we’ll stick to ourselves and do everything to get all three points next week. We have to come together this week and somehow find every spark we’ve got to get the win in Cologne.”
Reaction from the Leipzig camp
Marco Rose (head coach): “Bayern weren’t much better than us. We know how we won. We felt at half-time that we could do a number of things better. We lost balls too easily in the first half, were lax with the ball. We wanted to be more compact, add more intensity, but also knew there was something in this for us today. With the counter for the equaliser, belief grew that we had them, and we took that. It was a great performance from us, being there in such an important period of the season.”
Willi Orban (captain): “The second half was much better. We were braver, had more pressure on the ball, lots of turnovers and then scored good goals. We knew we had to change something at the break – full-backs higher up the field and defending the attacking midfielder higher. That meant we won the ball and then finished the attacks. We obviously had some luck with the penalties, but when you look at the second half, we deserved to win.”
Konrad Laimer: “We didn’t start the game well. You saw how well Bayern can play when there’s something on the line for them. But we then got our chances. We said at half-time that we had to stay calm on the ball. We got chances, took them and definitely aren’t undeserved winners. We really grew up in the second half, matured and allowed them very little.”
Recap the game in our report:
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