Kimmich: It won’t be like last season. Match reactions to Bayern Munich’s 2-1 loss against Borussia Mönchengladbach

Borussia Mönchengladbach handed Hansi Flick his second defeat as the interim manager of Bayern Munich, as they beat the visitors 2-1 at Borussia Park. After a phenomenal few games under Flick, Bayern are back to unpleasant results and are currently positioned 7th in the league table, reminiscent of last season’s Hinrunde.

As how it is most of the times, the area in which the Bavarians had trouble was in converting their chances. Flick thinks that his team has the quality to be better and score more goals if they try a little harder. He said (FCBayern),

On the one hand, it’s important we play well. We did so in the first half, we created a number of chances. Of course, it’s frustrating that we didn’t convert the chances, we kept Gladbach in the game. We should have closed it out early, as we should have done against Leverkusen last week. The team has the quality to score goals, but they aren’t putting it into practice at the moment. But ultimately goals are what counts in football.

Joshua Kimmich seemed very annoyed during the match and he expressed the same emotion off-pitch. He believes that Bayern had every chance to win the last two games and is frustrated to have gotten zero points from two straight games. He said,

I’m incredibly annoyed. We played very well in the first half, we had many chances but failed to reward ourselves. We deservedly took the lead after half-time. Gladbach got a grip then but didn’t have outstanding chances. We performed well in the last two matches but lost both.

The 24-year-old is clearly not happy about the results of the past two games and that really shines through in his words. In the end, he also added that it would be a bit more difficult for Bayern to win the title this season than the previous one (Sport1):

If were are totally honest with ourselves, it played into our hand that we were knocked out of the Champions League [in the round of 16], because otherwise it would have been more difficult to win the double.

The alarms had to be there already before the game. It’s not only Gladbach who’s ahead of us. Whoever still hasn’t understood that is on the wrong track. Whoever believes that it’ll be just like last season again is out of place.

No matter how perfect your team looks as you read through the stats sheet, ultimately, it is the goals and the points earned that make the difference. Bayern looked like the better side in the first half of the season but later conceded two goals. Thomas Müller said that the team lost its grip after the first fifty minutes of the game and failed to bring the match under control:

It’s depressing to lose the match in this situation. After the goal we didn’t control the match as we did in the first 50 minutes. Then we conceded a goal from a set-piece, which is deadly, and towards the end we conceded a penalty. Football is fast-paced, especially during matches. At the end of the day we’re empty-handed despite the good display.

Marco Rose, Gladbach’s manager, believes that it was more of a lucky victory. The table toppers did not expect to grab the three points when they conceded in the beginning of the second half. He said:

We saw two different halves. We didn’t have a grip in the first half. What you set out to do against Bayern and how you put it into practice are two different pairs of shoes. We were punished when they took the lead in the 49th minute. We clawed our way back and levelled the scores from a set-piece. Then we pushed for a winner and rewarded ourselves with the converted penalty. At the end of the day it was a lucky victory, but it really boosts our development.

Bayern Munich has a very hectic schedule coming up with Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League group stage and Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga this week. It is important to not lose anymore points in the league just to keep the hopes of an eight consecutive title alive.