FC Bayern were able to celebrate their progress to the Champions League round of 16 thanks to a goal in the last-minute of normal time! In the play-off second leg against Celtic on Tuesday evening, the Munich side battled it out for a 1-1 draw in freezing temperatures at the Allianz Arena to book their place in the last 16. Substitute Alphonso Davies scored the decisive goal in the 93rd minute, making for much relief in the Bayern camp after the match. “In the end, what counts is that we’ve gone through. We’re looking forward to playing in the next round,” said Vincent Kompany. fcbayern.com has compiled all the reactions to the game.
Reaction to play-off second leg against Celtic
Vincent Kompany: “We had a lot of chances in the second half where we could’ve scored two or three goals. But in the end, we needed that goal from Phonzy. Nevertheless, you have to look at it in context - we have put in an enormous amount of energy over the last six days. Now, we have an eight-point lead in the league, are one round further in this competition and have a little more time to recuperate. Of course, we want to beat our opponents by as large a margin as possible, but if that doesn’t work, then you have to work hard for the results. That’s exactly what we’ve done, and in the end, what counts is that we’ve gone through. You also learn a lot about our mentality – and that’s a part of it. We’re looking to playing in the next round.”
Manuel Neuer: “We definitely had some promising moments throughout the game and our efforts paid off in the end. Losing Harry at half-time wasn’t ideal, of course, because having our best striker lead the line could have helped us further. We were unlucky to hit the woodwork as often as we did. In all honesty, playing three games in the last six days has been exhausting. We didn’t show our complete dominance, but what matters in the end is that we’ve gone through to the round of 16 and maintained our lead at the top of the Bundesliga. Mentally speaking too, that was a strong performance, and we can be proud of how much commitment we showed. The relief of progressing to the next round trumps everything else.”
Leon Goretzka: “I don’t know if it was that surprising when you look at the first leg. We played against a really top team. Of course, we could have made it a bit easier on ourselves, had we not conceded that goal. But these three games over the last six days have simply been about getting the results and we’ve done that. So, for that reason, we’re very happy.”
Alphonso Davies: : “It’s the Champions League; we’re playing against a good Celtic team. We knew they would come here with high intensity, and we know we had to match that intensity, which we did. It’s not easy to play so many games, but all in all we defended well. We had a momentary lapse at the back but on the whole we played well. We didn’t give away many chances. In the end, we’re just happy be through to the next round.”
Reaction from the Celtic camp
Brendan Rodgers (manager): “We’re proud of how we performed and we have to realise: It was Bayern! It was a big challenge from the start, but we played without fear and defended with a lot of discipline. Harry Kane hit the crossbar, but we also had chances ourselves. We had to defend even more in the second half - we knew that would be the case – but we deserved to take the lead. Then it was a question of when we would score the second. It didn’t really look as if we were going to concede, but it happened right at the end. Nevertheless, I can say that I’m proud of the performance; the boys left everything out on the pitch.”
Nicolas Kühn (midfielder):
): “First of all, I’m very, very proud of the whole team. I think we put in a great performance. We had already played very well in the first leg. We scored the equaliser and led in the game for a long time, but of course it’s all the more bitter to go out like this.”
Read more about the game in our report:
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