Atletico Madrid are as hard to tackle as Real Madrid or Barcelona, says Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola.
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The future Manchester City manager was happier to talk about Jerome Boateng’s fitness calling him one of the best defenders in the world. “We need patience and we only need a goal to take the game to extra time”. “We put in a good performance but in the first half we lacked a bit of courage and aggressiveness.
It’ll be a close game like today, we’ll see who makes the most of their chances”.
Guardiola inherited a team which had won the Champions League in 2013, but he has so far failed to progress past the semi-final stage since he took over nearly three years ago.
Bayern came close on a couple of occasions in the second-half with David Alaba rattling the crossbar with a long-range effort and Arturo Vidal forcing a sharp save from Jan Oblak, but Atletico didn’t buckle and they nearly pinched a second goal late on when Fernando Torres hit the post from a corner. When he left the first dribble, I did not imagine much more.
Guardiola said he made the decision to get another midfielder in the side and ensure he had a left-footed player playing on the left and a right-footed player on the right. “We’ve got what we wanted, which was to get the scoreline in our favor ahead of the second leg”.
Munich captain, Philipp Lahm claimed that home support could inspire Bayern to turn the tie around.
Bayern was able to threaten more in the second half and created some clear scoring chances, but couldn’t capitalize on any of them.
Torres had a great chance to make it 2-0 with 15 minutes to go, but his effort crashed against the post.
Bayern, who face Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup final on 21 May, are looking to finish the season with a treble.
“But at the moment, if we keep those clean sheet ratios going in the next four games, I am convinced we will stay up”.
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“It was a great piece of individual skill with lots of creativity, Saul Niguez is developing well which is great for us”.
