A six-goal thriller at the Allianz Arena! After two games without victory in the Bundesliga, FC Bayern got back on track against ten-man TSG Hoffenheim with an emphatic 5-1 win over their third-placed rivals. Alongside two-goal Harry Kane, the star of the show was Luis Díaz, who netted his first hat-trick for FCB.
“There are always ups and downs,” explained Serge Gnabry. “We always want to make a statement.” Bayern certainly did that, with Kane describing the secret to their success: “The squad is fit, the squad is healthy, everyone’s pushing to be on the pitch.” fcbayern.com has gathered the rest of the post-match reaction for you.
Reaction to the match against Hoffenheim
Jan-Christian Dreesen, CEO: “I’m obviously pleased with the result. We initially struggled against the 10 men, but at the end of the day we’ve made a statement with this victory. That’s good after one or two people already saw it as a mini crisis after the two previous matches. We really are enjoying Luis Díaz, he’s a real whirlwind. Now it’s all or nothing against Leipzig [in the cup]. We’ve not been to Berlin for six years. Before that it was eight times in 10 years. We’ve got some catching-up to do, so obviously we want to win.”
Max Eberl, board member for sport: “We’ve pulled away from the team in third today and it was another important win after Leipzig recently. Luis Díaz made the difference today – he was the key player, although we achieved the win as a group. Luis always plays with passion and desire. He can also beat several players at times. We’re extremely happy to have him here. On Wednesday it’s about going through against Leipzig. We’ve not been in the cup final for a long time. Both teams probably aren’t at their very highest level currently, but they’ve shown it already this season. It’s going to be a fascinating encounter.”
Vincent Kompany “Perfect would maybe be if it had finished 5-0 or 6-0, but we respect Hoffenheim and knew that they’re a good team, so it’s a good result. We couldn’t have asked for much more from this match, and we’re in the position we need to be in. Now the full focus is on Leipzig. Whenever things drop off for two or three minutes, our team are immediately back again – whether it’s at counters, corners, set pieces, in possession or a cross into the penalty area. They’re always dangerous and hungry to get forward. Obviously you try to strike a balance, but when you score so many goals, you have to encourage that. I’ve got a lot of experience in these situations, where you’ve got a chance of winning something at the end. You need tunnel vision. It doesn’t matter if you get three points, put in a good or bad performance – you have to move on straight away and be at your best again in the next game. That’s how you sometimes get into a groove, into a rhythm. People always think we must win everything. Obviously we want to, but so do others. I always see the positive.”
Harry Kane: “Obviously there’s been a bit of disquiet around the team in the last few weeks after not winning a few games. That’s why it was important for us to stay calm and true to ourselves. We had a full week to prepare, the level in training was very high. You see that the squad is fit, the squad is healthy, everyone’s pushing to be on the pitch. And you saw that again today, especially in the first 15 minutes – we came out with real intensity. Then they were reduced to 10, it disturbed our rhythm a bit. We needed about 15, 20 minutes to get back into our game and our style. Credit to Hoffenheim, they’re a good side and play good football. We know we’re coming into the crucial phase of the season now. We have a good lead at the top at the moment but as we saw last week, that can also quickly shrink. We said early on in the season that we want to be in a good position with a fit, healthy squad in February, March. We’re top of the table, still in the DFB Cup and finished in the top eight in the Champions League. This is a good moment for us. The season begins for real now – and we have to carry on from here and see who can keep up.”
Serge Gnabry: “I think this week did us a lot of good – being fully in training for the first time in a while, recharging a bit. We came out much fresher today. The first 15 minutes were very good. At the end of the day, maybe we could’ve played even better and scored more goals, especially when Hoffenheim were down to 10, but we’re pleased with the win today. We always want to make a statement. The points we dropped recently hurt us, especially because we’d built up a good cushion. But a season is long, there are always ups and downs, so we’ll keep going into every game with full commitment – and if we win our matches, it will turn out well for us.”
Reaction from Hoffenheim
Christian Ilzer (coach): “I said before the match: if my team show what we’re capable of, if we believe in ourselves – even here in this stadium against this top team – then I’ll be satisfied afterwards, regardless of the result. I saw a good performance from my team in all the areas that we could control.”
Oliver Baumann (goalkeeper): “It might sound silly but we gave a really good performance. Playing a large part of the game with 10 men was tough, but we stuck together through it and that will help us. We all stand together. We’re resilient – and we’ll remain so too.”
Grischa Prömel (midfielder): “In the end we lost 5-1, but I can’t fault the team much. To be a man down for so long is tough but it happens. Nevertheless, we showed what we’re about. We wanted to play bravely and aggressively, and we did that for large parts of the match. It makes me a little proud that we played like that in Munich and almost matched them, especially in the first half – as well as creating the odd chance.”
The match report:
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