The hands went to the hips rather than to the sky. It was a bitter moment and a tough lesson for Bayern on Bundesliga Matchday 14 against Eintracht Frankfurt.
There was absolutely no sugarcoating this 5-1 defeat, and all of the Bayern players obviously knew that when they gathered in front of the travelling Bayern fans on Saturday afternoon.
But the fans made one thing unmistakably clear: we stand behind you, we stand together, regardless of victory or defeat.
Nevertheless, in the constant rain and the constant hail of conceded goals, the atmosphere in the Bayern camp was understandably gloomy.
Back into fighting mode
Despite a long gap without a game and a “good week of training,” according to head coach Thomas Tuchel, Bayern achieved too little control, created too few chances and showed too little bite. But what were the reasons?
“We don't need any explanations. In the first half-hour, Eintracht bullied us,“ admitted Thomas Müller honestly, before issuing a rallying call: “We need to tap into our anger and show a reaction now. We have to go where it hurts. We won't lose our heads and we'll fight back!“
The motto here: it's better to lose by a big margin once, learn from those mistakes and improve quickly, rather than lose several close games.
In Frankfurt, who had lost the four previous games in succession, nothing went according to plan for FCB. “We demanded a reaction from the lads and they showed it right from the start,” said Frankfurt head coach and former Bayern assistant coach Dino Toppmöller. His Eintracht team had been very lively and efficient, and ruthlessly punished Bayern for every single mistake.
Initially, Omar Marmoush was successful (12th minute), then Junior Dina Ebimbe (31', 50'), Hugo Larsson (36') and Ansgar Knauff (60') scored. The little hope Bayern had following a beautiful goal by Joshua Kimmich (44') was nipped in the bud.
Tuchel misses aggression
Tuchel was disappointed: “We don't have many positives to report about. We deserved to lose. The willingness and the ferocity necessary to win away from home was definitely missing today.“
Goals conceded in spite of good statistics
In the end, it didn't help that Bayern had more shots on goal than Frankfurt (21-14), the better pass completion (90%-78%), more successful dribbles (26-5) and more possession (65%-35%).
“We completely underestimated these situations and the half-chances," stated Tuchel. "We conceded the first goal early and were unable to show any of the things we had intended to. Therefore, the win for Frankfurt is fair enough. We will analyse the game critically, and then life continues."
On Tuesday, Bayern Munich play away from home in the Champions League against Manchester United, and on Sunday in-form Stuttgart visit the Allianz Arena. Now Bayern are focusing on reacting to this lesson.
Müller's demands
"We need to go at least one better," said Müller.
Several times in their history, Bayern Munich have been able to bounce back from setbacks and remind themselves of their quality, which they still undoubtedly have.
Reaction to the defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt:
Topics of this article