Successful start to a busy few weeks! FC Bayern kicked off the first packed week in February with a commanding 3-0 home win against Werder Bremen in front of 75,000 spectators in the sold-out Allianz Arena on Friday evening. Head coach Vincent Kompany was correspondingly happy after the game: “Overall, I'm satisfied with the result and also with the performance today.” Harry Kane, who bagged a brace under the floodlights, was already looking ahead: "We have to keep this level as high as possible. It's an important month for us, we know that. Two big away games next week, that will certainly be difficult." Bayern’s next game is on Wednesday with the first leg of the Champion’s League play-off at Celtic Glasgow, before they face second-place Leverkusen on Saturday. fcbayern.com has compiled all the reactions to the game.
Reaction to the game against Bremen
Max Eberl (board member for sport): "Tonight’s game was an important one. In the first half we struggled to come up to speed and Bremen defended well. In the second half, we hit the crossbar right at the start and put our opponents where we wanted them: in their own penalty area. That’s where game deciding moments take place – that's why we deserved to win, even by that margin. The seventh win in a row is a clear expression of quality and strength."
Vincent Kompany: "We had a few chances in the first half, but unfortunately we didn't capitalise on those two or three moments. Nevertheless, we stayed calm, we know that if we keep up the tempo and keep the pressure on the opposition, we'll find a way through at some point. Overall, I'm satisfied with the result and also with our performance today. We set ourselves high goals. We want to keep working on improving. We’re walking away from tonight’s match with a positive feeling, which we need for the upcoming games."
Manuel Neuer: “A clean sheet looked likely during most of the match against Kiel, yet we couldn’t see it through to the final whistle. We did much better today. We were very disciplined and controlled, especially in defence and also in the second half. We created more chances and then also got the penalties. Results like today promise a lot. And we now have difficult tasks ahead of us. We know that the stakes are high, and we'll do everything we can to be successful."
Harry Kane: "It was another good game. There will be a lot of tight games like today this season where small moments decide games. As a striker, I take the responsibility to make the decision and score the 1-0 to open the game up. I've managed to do that a few times, which is always nice. We just have to keep going. I enjoy being on the pitch with the lads. Everyone has to be focussed until the end and ready for every moment. And you saw that today – everyone was still running back in the 90th minute to win second balls – that's what wins you games. So, we have to keep this level as high as possible. It's an important month for us, we know that. But for us it's just about challenging ourselves, raising our level and seeing how far we can take it."
Joshua Kimmich: "The game demonstrated what it takes to win games: in the first half it was a lot of patience, in the second half we stepped up the tempo, created better chances, had better positional play and didn't concede anything at the back. All in all, it was a very good performance. We wanted to defend everything until the last minute. Now we'll take care of ourselves a bit and then look forward to the game on Wednesday. It will be a very crucial, special week for us."
Aleksandar Pavlović: "It wasn't so easy to get through their back line in the first half. We approached the second half with more vigour. It was a deserved win and we're very happy about it. The upcoming games are very important for us, we're raring to go!”
Reaction from the Bremen camp
Ole Werner (head coach, SV Werder Bremen): "Congratulations to Bayern on their well-deserved victory. We did a lot of things right in the first half and managed to take the tempo out of the game. But after winning the ball, we didn't get into the transitional moments. In the second half, it was more of a one-sided affair. If you want to win at Bayern, everything must go right. In the second half, we also suffered a bit from the personnel situation. I can't blame the team, they put everything into it and put in a good fighting performance."
Patrick Kohlmann (assistant coach, SV Werder Bremen): "In the first half, we successfully carried out a lot of what we planned to do. We should have maybe created clearer goalscoring opportunities when we won the ball, but that’s easier said than done. Logically, it didn't get any easier in the second half with the penalty and the injuries. In the end, it's a deserved defeat."
Michael Zetterer (goalkeeper, SV Werder Bremen): "We knew what kind of game to expect and still threw everything into it, defended everything. I would have liked to have seen how the game would have gone if the penalty to make it 1-0 hadn't been scored – maybe we could have kept it at 0-0 or even pulled ahead. Until then, we defended well and didn't allow any big chances. It's all the more annoying how we fell behind. We knew that could happen because our plan was to defend with everything we had. Maybe we lacked a bit of strength in the end."
Marvin Duksch (striker, SV Werder Bremen): "It wasn't our plan to have so few attacks to relieve the pressure. In the end, we deserved to lose. We were simply pinned back too deep and the path forwards was extremely long when we won the ball. If you have to cover 70 or 80 metres with the ball to get in front of Manuel Neuer, that's just too far. Bayern did really well today."
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