The “Bulls” went to Munich with a lot of euphoria after the 1:1 in the round of 16 first leg of the soccer Champions League, only to have to draw a bitter conclusion there after a 1:7 debacle. “Today we were bad in all eleven positions,” said defender Rasmus Kristensen.
“Today it was an opponent on a different level,” Kristensen admitted to “Sky”, hardly anyone would have contradicted him after the strong performance of the six-time CL title holder. The heaviest EC defeat in Salzburg’s history was painful, it had the character of a friendly in the second half and was also a new experience for coach Matthias Jaissle, who was used to success.
“A very, very bitter evening. The disappointment is huge. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to build on the first leg and couldn’t call up our level of performance,” he said, looking back not only at the 1-1 draw in mid-February, but also at the appearances in the group stage – with victories against FC Sevilla, OSC Lille and VfL Wolfsburg. “Sports director Christoph Freund put it in a similar way. “Everything went wrong, it went haywire. It was a real lesson,” explained one of the architects of the successes of recent years.
Nicolas Capaldo (2nd) and Nicolas Seiwald (15th) certainly had the opportunity to give the game a completely different character. But they left their top chances unused – quite the opposite to Robert Lewandowski, who not only countered his pale performance from the first leg impressively with the fastest hat-trick in CL history (12th, 21st, 23rd), but also conceivably early for clear conditions worried.
Wöber caused two penalties
The fact that central defender Maximilian Wöber was duped by the two-time world footballer both before the 0: 1 and 0: 2 with a perfect ball acceptance including a turn and could only manage with a penalty foul did not make it any easier. “It went awry from the first minute. Two penalties were indebted, that’s how the whole thing started. We then broke up a bit from minute to minute,” said the ÖFB team player. Serge Gnabry’s 4-0 (31st) didn’t really help either.
“That does something to the team, it’s a completely different situation for the young players,” said veteran and captain Andreas Ulmer. At halftime, Jaissle appealed “above all to the attitude” of his kickers, as the coach said. “Because it is not a matter of course that you then continue to bring the mentality onto the pitch and continue to oppose it. We managed that quite well,” explained the young coach (33) of an even younger team, aged 23.7 Starting eleven average came up.
Of course, that didn’t change the three goals conceded after the break by Thomas Müller (54′, 83′) and Leroy Sane (86′). “I’m annoyed that we end up conceding a goal or two,” said Freund, who was still able to experience the goal of honor from “Joker” Maurits Kjaergaard (71st). The 18-year-old’s first European Cup goal was probably the only good thing that evening in front of 25,000 spectators in the Allianz Arena.
What Salzburg lacked against Bayern, who were enthusiastic from the start and visibly motivated after minor mistakes in the league, was not just experience. “We didn’t have an easy preparation for the game,” stressed Jaissle. After all, his team had meanwhile turned into a corona cluster around two weeks ago. “We always said that wasn’t an excuse, but you could see that one or the other player wasn’t at 100 percent,” said the German about minor or major physical deficits.
Even in the moment of disappointment, he tried to focus on the achievements of the past few months. “The pride in what has been achieved remains. That was something historic for the club. Nobody will take that away from the boys,” said Jaissle, who worked as a professional coach in his first season. “Nevertheless, we must not let our Champions League season be badmouthed,” said Wöber.
The “Bulls” have until Sunday to digest, then the start of the Bundesliga championship group will see the hit against Sturm Graz. Then you are back in the role of Bayern.
Source: Nachrichten
