Reaction to Slovan Bratislava match – Thomas Müller: 'Need to put things straight'

Despite a 3-1 win at home to Slovan Bratislava in the final game of the Champions League’s league phase, Bayern players and staff were critical of themselves. “We didn’t play out our chances well enough,” said head coach Vincent Kompany, who now has to prepare his team for a two-legged play-off. Thomas Müller was typically colourful in his view of things: “If you don’t achieve your initial goal, then you need to put things straight in the lap of honour.” Bayern know they will face either Celtic or Manchester City in the play-off and are already looking ahead. “Let’s see who we’re playing and then give our all,” added Josip Stanisic. fcbayern.com rounds up the reaction to Wednesday night’s game.

Reaction to Slovan Bratislava match

Max Eberl: “I got the impression we wanted too much. The team really wanted to score goals. That also meant we allowed them some counter-attacks. At the end of the day, you realised there was an opponent out there who also wanted to play football. Bratislava are in the Champions League for a reason. We then weren’t tidy enough in our play, meaning we weren’t always as dangerous as we should’ve been. Now we’ll face up to the situation. It’ll be an exciting February. But if you want to achieve something, then you need to take on the tasks as they come.”

Vincent Kompany: “We had a lot of forwards on the pitch, had a big chance to make it 4-0. We didn’t play out our chances well enough. We needed to win six games. Unfortunately, it was only five. That was our problem. I think all the games we lost were different. With City, we all know the quality in that team. Celtic would also be special for the away game. We need to regain that energy so we’re up for these play-off games. Celtic and City might come into the tie with a good feeling. We need to do so as well. We didn’t have much in our own hands today, but from tomorrow it's all in our own hands again.”

Thomas Müller: “I think if you only have a 10 percent chance of finishing in the top eight, they I need to be realistic in saying that was extremely tough. Maybe we were still regretting our performance in Rotterdam a bit. At the end of the day, we’ve got the proof in the form of our final position in the table. We wanted to finish in the top eight. We haven’t done that. But if you don’t achieve your initial goal, then you need to put things straight in the lap of honour. Now the play-offs are coming up. We obviously accept that and will see who we get, Celtic or Manchester City. And then we want to progress. But first we need to gather ourselves. We’re playing in the Bundesliga on Saturday. Maybe some bold statements will come next week.”

Josip Stanisic: “I wasn’t happy with the first half. It was obviously nice to start again, but I’d wanted more from myself. I was pleased on the whole with the second half. Getting to start and also stay out there for so long is a heavy load. I’m just pleased I’ve come through it and could be out there with the team again. We’d obviously hoped for more today, but sometimes you get days like this and just have to accept it, put it behind you and look ahead. We won, but it didn’t really feel like a win. Nobody was really happy at the end. We just expected more. Now we need to see who we’re playing against. We’ve put ourselves in this situation with the last few games. But you can’t change the past. Let’s see who we get and then give our all.”

Aleksandar Pavlovic: “Obviously we’d hoped for more and wanted to play better, but sometimes that’s how football is. Now we move on. We’ve got the next game in three days. We’ll do all we can to perform to our best. Then we’ll see who we play against and give our all there. You get days like this where not everything goes right, but we need to take our chances better in the future and step it up. Personally, I don’t care who we play against. We just need to show our true potential and give our best, regardless of whether it’s against Celtic or Manchester City.”

Reaction from the Slovan Bratislava camp

Vladimir Weiss (head coach): “Bayern were the better team and deserved to win, but we gave our best. We defended valiantly, but we also had chances up front, even scored a great goal that we won’t forget any time soon. For me, Bayern are one of the top four clubs for the title. It was a fantastic experience in this stadium with 5,000 travelling fans. It was amazing. Everyone gave their best, but we can’t compare ourselves to Bayern.”

Read more about the game in our report: