In to the next cup round with the right mentality and cleverness! On Wednesday evening, FC Bayern qualified for the round of 16 of the DFB Cup following a 4:1 away win against 1. FC Köln. Having fought back from a Köln lead, Bayern celebrated a comprehensive win in the end. “We did a great job as a team and came back from a deficit. It was a very good team performance,” said goalkeeper Jonas Urbig. Head coach Vincent Kompany added: “It was a great fight, a real cup match. I'm very happy with the fighting spirit of our lads.” fcbayern.com has more of the post-match reaction.
Reaction to the match at Köln
Max Eberl (Board Member for Sport): “Köln was very active and courageous today. They went for the second ball and aerial duels. The first half was very complicated for us. It wasn't an easy game and then we conceded the 1:0. But we came back, turned the game around and took the 2:1 lead before half-time. The second half was a very robust and solid away game and we finished it off well. You could see the kind of mentality our team has and how much joy they have for playing football. At the moment, we're enjoying great momentum.”
Vincent Kompany: “It was a great fight, a real cup match. I'm very happy with the fighting spirit of our lads. We came back from the 1:0 and remained dangerous in the second half. We held the intensity up high. Köln kept clawing themselves back into the game. I'm very happy. We already had great goal chances in the first half. Köln believed in themselves and fought for the second ball. At times, we didn't execute our set-pieces quickly enough. We were always dangerous when we had speed in our possession. It's important for us to use our squad and we still have players returning. Now, we have three games in six days so we'll only be regenerating. Leverkusen and PSG will be tough, but we deserve to be confident.”
Harry Kane: “The first 30 minutes weren't easy. We had chances to take the lead. They scored the first goal, but we reacted very well. It was very important for us to gain control before half-time. In the second half, we were more able to play our style of football. Once they started to get tired, we had more space and we used it. We're experiencing a good period and have to keep this feeling and this winning mentality going.”
Jonathan Tah: “It wasn't easy for us in the first half hour. They played well and scored the first goal from a set-piece. Then the stadium and the atmosphere kicked in. But the way we handled that situation shows that we're ready for these moments. It didn't take long for us to score the 1:1 and the 2:1. That was a great team reaction. We're always hungry, we always want to win and we're never satisfied. We're happy today and tomorrow we'll focus on the next game.”
Jonas Urbig: “We're happy as a team and so am I. My personal emotions were secondary today. We did a great job as a team and came back from a deficit. It was a very good team performance. Köln is playing a good season and they have a good team. We were prepared for that. We had to show everything to win. We're happy we were able to keep our series going. It was a good game of football.“
Reaction from Köln
Lukas Kwasniok (head coach): “Congratulations to Bayern. It was a deserved win. We were able to challenge Bayern for 30 minutes and even took the lead. We forced them into many aerial duels. Once we conceded the 1:1 and 2:1 within four minutes, it was really tough for us. And after they made it 3:1, the game was basically over.”
Rob-Robert Zieler (goalkeeper): “We felt today we have a chance in every game. We knew a lot of things had to go in our favour. We caused Bayern some problems today. The first half was very decent, which made it even worse to go into the break trailing 2:1. In the second half, Bayern developed their dominance and that made it more difficult for us. But we tried everything. You can go out of the DFB cup against Bayern. The team showed a good performance and we need to take strength from that.”
Marius Bülter (forward): “We were brave and didn't just sit back. We tried to man-mark them and that worked quite well. We forced Bayern into physical duels with long balls forward an that went well for us. We played well, we took the lead and the stadium erupted when we scored. Of course, we all believed in the sensation then. We kept that feeling going until they made it 3:1, but after that we were deflated. Bayern are simply too good and the two quick goals killed us to a certain extent.”
Ragnar Ache (forward): “We gave everything we had but, unfortunately, it wasn't enough in the end. Of course, we believed in ourselves. Bayern has great individual quality. We lost control of the game at times but the fans saw that we gave it everything we had.”
Read more about the game in our report:
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