Flick, Neuer, and Gnabry react to Bayern’s last gasp 2-0 win over Wolfsburg

It was déjà vu for Bayern Munich as late heroics from Joshua Zrikzee and Serge Gnabry sealed a vital 2-0 win over VfL Wolfsburg at the Allianz Arena to close out the hinrunde. The pair were Bayern’s sparking heroes just 3 nights prior at the Schwarzwald-Stadion, where their stoppage time goals secured a vital 3-1 win over SC Freiburg. This time, they scored their goals slightly earlier to secure the 3 points over Wolfsburg (Zirkzee, 85’. Gnabry, 89’). The victory cemented Bayern’s place in the number 3 spot in the Bundesliga table to head into the winter-pause period.

It’s safe to say that despite collecting full points and recording a clean sheet, Bayern was far from their best against Wolfsburg. The visitors were well disciplined defensively and offered threats going forward, especially in the first half. Hansi Flick gave lots of credit to Oliver Glasner’s side, but admired how his squad believed they could win until the very end (FCBayern.com):

Wolfsburg acquitted themselves very well. It certainly wasn’t our best performance, which was also to do with how well Wolfsburg defended and how cleverly they closed the space. I’m just proud of the team today – they deserved the win, as they have done in previous games. The lads believed they could win until the end, which pleased me a lot. They’re growing as a team and were rewarded with three points today.

Manuel Neuer put the win \down to Bayern’s will power, and he was amazed that Zirkzee was able to score another massive goal with his first touch of the ball after coming on as a sub for Philippe Coutinho in the 83rd minute:

It was another triumph of will. We did everything to win and gave ourselves a nice Christmas present. Obviously it’s fantastic that we got the goals in the end – it’s crazy that Joshua [Zirkzee], like he did at Freiburg, scored with virtually his first touch of the ball. We’ve all done ourselves proud in recent games and are looking forward to the second half of the season.

Photo by Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images

Given Bayern’s results against Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach, Serge Gnabry reiterated how important Bayern’s three-game winning streak has been for the momentum of the team to close out the Hinrunde:

We want to win every game. I think we needlessly dropped points against Leverkusen and ‘Gladbach. We’ve made amends for that a bit with the late wins against Freiburg and again today. We’re back on it now.

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