Reactions to Bayern vs Sevilla: Jupp Heynckes is content to advance

Reactions

(From FCBayern.com, ESPN.com and Kicker.de)

Bayern Munich’s disappointing goalless draw against Sevilla FC did not diminish Jupp Heynckes’s optimism about winning the treble. According to him, it was indeed a big thing not letting the Spaniards seize a victory at the Allianz Arena in the same way they got past Manchester United at Old Trafford.

It’s clear your opponents try everything to overturn a 2-1 deficit. Sevilla scored two goals away to Manchester, so they were confident. These are tight matches where you have to put up a real fight and act as a team. My team fought outstandingly well. Apart from a few moments we weren’t knocked out of our stride, we didn’t get nervous. I liked our positional play in the second half, we let the ball do the work. Unfortunately we failed to take our chances. You can’t always play brilliantly, you can’t always overwhelm your opponents. I’m very satisfied, partly because we kept a clean sheet. I told my team how important it is, and it was enough today

The boss said that everybody thought Bayern would get knocked out in or before the quarter finals when he took over as the team’s manager after an abrupt sacking of Carlo Ancelotti:

When I started, nobody believed Bayern Munich would reach the Champions League semifinals. My players have lofty ambitions in the Champions League to go all the way to the final. I think we are in a good place at the moment, but you need some luck, good officials and your best form on the day

When asked about what team he wants Bayern to play against in the semi-finals, Heynckes gave a typical response:

I don’t have any preference for the draw—any semifinal will be difficult against three top opponents.

Unlike always, Thomas Müller wasn’t all smiles during the post match interview. He let us know that he is chagrined because the team failed to deliver a desired performance; there were countless chances for Bayern to modify the score line but none of them actually made any changes:

We were aware of the situation and wanted to play as we did in the last 20 minutes of the first half, but there were many moments when the final pass wasn’t so good. It wasn’t about attacking relentlessly. Heynckes said so after all. It’s annoying we didn’t score, we had chances and space.

Joshua Kimmich admitted that he wasn’t really worried of things going wrong; keeping a clean sheet was the best option to go through into the semi finals.

Of course we knew Sevilla needed two goals to advance. You mainly want to keep a clean sheet so you know you go through. But we were much too passive, especially in the first half, but we had the better chances. Unfortunately we didn’t finish our counters, so we were a bit on tenterhooks until the end. If I’m honest I wasn’t too worried it might go wrong.

After the quarter-final knockout of Sevilla, Vincenzo Montella said that the team have fallen proudly:

We have fallen proudly. The team played a good game throughout, we played with balance and we had our chances, not very clear ones, but if there was a goal in the second half from the head of Correa. The team have played with spirit and personality. It was not easy, our opponents can compete to win the Champions League. We had bad luck with two goals at home and today with the crossbar, football is like that and we have to accept it.

The Match in Review

Bayern Munich booked their berth in the semi finals of the Champions League by sending home Sevilla on an aggregate of 2-1. The game was uneventful except for the numerous times Robert Lewandowski fell down, rolling on the ground in pain. Both the teams created multiple chances but miserably failed to score goals. Lewandowski, James Rodríguez, Franck Ribéry, Arjen Robben and Thomas Müller went so close to scoring but they could not get the ball past Sevilla’s goalkeeper David Soria. Amounting to an increase in the heartbeats of Bavarians, Ángel Correa headed the ball targeting it past Sven Ulreich but to his disappointment, the ball hit the post and the game once again returned to being uneventful. Sevilla’s coach described the header as what must’ve been a pivotal moment of the game.

Sevilla’s merciless physical attacks did not, fortunately, bring any serious injuries to any of the players. Many of them, including Lewandowski, Rodriguez, Rafinha and Javi Martínez, have suffered bruises as per the lastest injury updates.

Bayern Munich will be back in action in the Bundesliga on Saturday as they face Borussia Mönchengladbach before travelling to face Leverkusen in the DFB Cup next Tuesday. The UCL semi finals draw will take place on Friday around lunch time. Bayern are eagerly waiting to learn the identity of their opponent among the three powerful teams—Liverpool, Real Madrid and A.S Roma.

Notable Numbers

Bayern grabbed their 100th clean sheet in a European home match as the Bavarians pulled off a goalless draw against Sevilla. In addition to that, Thomas Muller and Jerome Boateng made their 100th European appearance on Wednesday.