Bayern Munich vow they want to show an instant reaction after suffering a first Bundesliga season defeat – 1:2 to Augsburg.
By John Bagratuni, dpa
PSV Eindhoven and SV Hamburg must brace themselves for a Bayern Munich team determined to bounce back from their first domestic season defeat.
Bayern’s unbeaten run in Germany ended after 10 months in the form of a surprise 2-1 Bundesliga home defeat against Bavarian rivals Augsburg.
Hiroki Ito had handed the hosts the lead but reserve goalkeeper Jonas Urbig failed to claim a corner as Arthur Chaves headed in an equalizer for Augsburg. Han-Noah Massengo won it for Augsburg in the 81st.
Busy schedule
The Bayern camp was not happy but at the same time stressed a lack of energy in the second half in a busy schedule with seven games in 21 days.
That period comes to an end with Wednesday’s Champions League match in Eindhoven and a Bundesliga date at lowly SV Hamburg on Saturday.
Bayern still hold a healthy eight point lead in the Bundesliga and will clinch second place in the league phase in Europe on their own if they don’t lose in the Netherlands.
Bring anger onto the pitch
“Losing is never fun. We’re disappointed, but the most important thing is how we respond to it, how we quickly put it out of our minds, focus on the next game and respond on the pitch,” defender Jonathan Tah said.
“We lost, and we need accept that. We want to take the anger we feel now and bring it onto the pitch in the next game and show our quality and energy again.”
Striker Harry Kane said: “It was a tough period with a lot of games, but ultimately, it’s on to the next one quickly, we’re now looking ahead to the Champions League.”
Midfielder Joshua Kimmich also agreed that “how we react to this is what matters. We’ll be thinking about this defeat for a few days, especially why and how. The important thing is that we respond to this and I’m looking forward to that!”
Coach Vincent Kompany said as well that “what matters is our reaction on the pitch. That’s no guarantee, but we know what we have to do.”
Lack of energy
Bayern had only dropped four points in their previous 18 league matches, in 2-2 draws with Mainz and Union Berlin.
But they already did not look as sharp as previously in the first half of the last games against Cologne, RB Leipzig and Union Saint-Gilloise which they all decided after the break.
On Saturday they ran out of energy towards the end but Kompany stressed that this will not derail their quest for success.
Still hungry
“The hunger is always there; that’s not the problem. Sometimes the performance on the day just isn’t there. People often say that the Bundesliga is easy, but we know from our own experience that it isn’t,” Kompany said.
“We shouldn’t question everything now – we just need to accept that today wasn’t our day.”
