Mathys Tel could hardly believe that the ball did not end up in the goal. In the closing stages of the home match against Werder Bremen, the young forward fired a header at full stretch towards the visitors’ goal. But somehow SVW keeper Michael Zetterer managed to get his fingertips to the ball with a brilliant reaction save. The ball then bounced back and forth twice between the goalkeeper and the post before the Bremen defence finally managed to clear the danger. It simply wasn’t to be. Tel put his hands to his face in disbelief. The chance was symbolic of an extremely unfortunate afternoon at the Allianz Arena, in which Bayern came away empty-handed.
“We probably would've deserved to score a goal in the last 15 minutes. Over the course of the full 90 minutes, however, we didn't deserve to win," admitted Thomas Müller after the 1-0 loss to the north Germans. Bayern had gone behind in the 59th minute courtesy of a strong individual effort by Mitchell Weiser, in a match that had been finely poised and lacking in chances up until that point. They then fought back with everything they had to avoid defeat. However, the 34-year-old went on to say that there was ultimately “not enough fire in us” to mount a decisive comeback. Despite a number of good chances, the ball just wouldn’t cross the line – a theme throughout the game as a whole.
Neuer: We woke up too late
We should have started that way,” summarised Manuel Neuer. Thomas Tuchel went further in saying that: “Today, we didn't have a grasp on the game and weren't aggressive enough without the ball. We lacked rhythm.” It's now important for the team to put this behind them as quickly as possible and learn the right lessons from this setback so early on in the Rückrunde (second half of the season) – even if there is not much time in which to do so. The rescheduled match against 1. FC Union Berlin is on the horizon, just three days away.
“We’re in this together and have to find a solution. We will discuss it with the team, work our way through it and try to do better on Wednesday,” the 50-year-old manager stated. Bayern need a result against the Berliners in order to narrow the gap between themselves and league leaders Bayer 04 Leverkusen. “We understand how serious the situation is and that Leverkusen are on a roll” said Neuer, setting the tone for his side: "We have to focus on ourselves and win our matches now. We know we have to play differently on Wednesday, show our true colours, and show our quality on the pitch."
More reaction to the match here:
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