Tuchel’s Bayern to ‘keep going’ after City demolition
BERLIN, Germany, (AFP) – Bayern Munich manager Thomas Tuchel held hope of a miracle comeback after his side’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City on Tuesday in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Bayern host Man City in next Wednesday’s return leg and despite the thrashing Tuchel said the outing at the Etihad Stadium was “fun”.
“Today I felt a bit of a shock with how much I’m in love with my team,” Tuchel told Amazon Prime.
“It was a lot of fun today. How we did it, we were strong, we were emotional, we were clever.”
The loss was Bayern’s worst in the Champions League since 2017, when they were hammered 3-0 by Paris Saint-Germain.
In April 2014, they lost 4-0 to Real Madrid.
Tuchel was coaching his fourth match – and first Champions League game – in the Bayern dugout, having been brought in to replace Julian Nagelsmann during the international break.
“I saw a great performance until the 60th minute… We are missing a bit of form and a bit of trust,” Tuchel said.
“You need a bit of luck in games like this, a deflection, something like that which would have changed the momentum.”
Tuchel, who won the Champions League in 2021 as coach of Chelsea against a Pep Guardiola-led Manchester City, said his side “needed to first digest it… but football is football.”
“I know it sounds a bit silly, but I really think we deserved a result today. We’ll keep going.”
Tuchel said Bayern could do little about City’s first goal, which “came from less than half a chance.”
“He (Rodri) scored from his wrong foot and from well outside the goal.”
Bayern captain Joshua Kimmich echoed his manager’s sentiments, saying “the first 60 minutes were good – we only conceded a wonder goal.”
“We’ve seen tonight it’s possible for us to play on the same level as Man City – and it’s possible to win.
“We’ve got the self confidence and the trust in the team to turn it around,” he added.
Bayern centre-back Matthijs de Ligt lamented his side “giving the game away unnecessarily” but believed they could still reach the semis.
“We know that anything can happen in football.”
