DFB-Pokal: Hasan Salihamidzic shocked at Bayern Munich’s 5-0 loss to Borussia Monchengladbach

Bayern Munich has crashed out of the DFB-Pokal in the second round after a 5-0 defeat to Borussia Monchengladbach at Borussia Park. It’s now the second consecutive season Bayern has exited the competition in the second round, having lost to Holstein Kiel on penalties last season. Braces from Breel Embolo and Ramy Bensebaini, as well as a goal from Kouadio Kone rounded out the routing from Die Fohlen in a result that’s come slightly against their run of form in the Bundesliga, having only three matches from nine thus far.

As is often the case, sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic was on the Bayern bench alongside Julian Nagelsmann’s coaching staff and was in complete awe of what he saw unfold speaking after the match (Tz). “Absolutely shocked! We were simply not there! We didn’t win a duel in the first half, it was a collective blackout,” he said when he asked how he was feeling after the final whistle. Gladbach has often been a bogey team for Bayern, which is something Brazzo emphasized they were well aware of and readily prepared for. “For me, it’s inexplicable. We knew how difficult it would be here, we discussed everything. Such a performance is hard to explain,” he stressed.

This was the third match in a row where Bayern was without Julian Nagelsmann on the touchlines due to his coronavirus quarantine. It certianly didn’t effect Bayern in their 4-0 wins over SL Benfica and TSG Hoffenheim, respectively, and it’s not something Brazzo felt had anything to do with the result at Gladbach. “That’s just speculation, of course. Of course we want the coach to be there. But the defeat has nothing to do with Dino [Toppmöller]. We were down 0:3 after 19 minutes because we didn’t win any duels,” he said.

With Joshua Kimmich’s vaccination status recently becoming public information in addition to Lucas Hernandez’s ongoing legal case, there are certainly off-pitch distractions present at the club famously nicknamed FC Hollywood. Both players have been subject to a great deal of criticism for the respective matters off the pitch, but Brazzo didn’t real feel like that’s something that really effected the way the collective squad performed. “It’s hard to say. There were a lot of stories last week, but we coped with that in the games before. The lack of inoculation was now not the reason today that we did not come into the duels and could stop the balls,” he said when he was asked about those situations.

Photo by Marius Becker/picture alliance via Getty Images

Dayot Upamecano certainly didn’t cover himself in glory with his performance. His efforts for Bayern thus far have been showing improvements from match to match, but the Gladbach match was a small speedbump in what has otherwise been a decently solid tenure thus far. Despite his individual performance lacking, Brazzo said that had little to do with the result, and that it’s always a collective effort. “We win together, we lose together. We will build Upa up again. It’s inexplicable because he has really played super lately. Gladbach really played outstandingly, they completely threw everything in from the first minute,” he said.