Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge insists he is unconcerned about Pep Guardiola’s contract situation, with talks due in December.
Advertisement
The World Cup victor has 10 assists this season, including seven in his last seven league games. Fine margins is an understatement when comparing both sides.
Francis Coquelin and Mikel Arteta were both injured in Saturday’s 2-1 loss at West Bromwich Albion.
“We were very much set in our ways, it was 4-4-2 or nothing and, until we changed that, we didn’t start to do better”. Few teams in Europe are as calculated and meticulous as Bayern and Barcelona in this respect.
“When we won in 1999, we thought we had a right chance of winning four or five but it never really happened [regularly in Europe] until 2008”. Bayern also have an 89% pass accuracy compared to the Spaniards’ 86%.
United looked slow, disorganized, and far too cautious for playing a team with defensive tactics, especially in front of their home fans.
Bayern may well equal or beat that 20-goal record for the most group stage goals on matchday six – jointly held by Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona – but Guardiola will already be thinking ahead to the latter rounds of the competition, where tougher tests and greater rewards beckon. But it wasn’t to matter as Bayern continued to control the game, and even bagged a fourth goal through Kingsley Coman.
The only high point of the campaign has been beating Bayern at home. “You have to fancy Barcelona”.
Bayern’s 4-0 win over the Greek champions, which took them through into the knockout phase, saw Muller rack up a half-century of Champions League wins at the age of 26 years, two months and 11 days.
The Greeks enjoyed a bit more possession but Coman got in on the act heading in Mueller’s nod for Bayern’s 14th goal in their three group home games. Nigeria worldwide Brown Ideye was through on goal when he was brought down just outside the area and Germany centre-back Badstuber was on his way for an early bath.
Group E: Lionel Messi is back and scoring netting a double in Barcelona’s 6-1 win over Roma that put the titleholders into the knockout round for a 12th consecutive season.
Conversely, a hefty 10.8 of Bayern’s 22 efforts on goal an outing in the competition come from beyond the confines of the 18-yard-box.
“We have other options, but we don’t have a natural left-footer”.
Advertisement
Dortmund’s 3-1 defeat themselves to Hamburg on Friday evening had relieved some of the pressure on Bayern to keep up their good form, but they showed no signs of slacking, as Alaba made it 1-0 with just nine minutes on the clock.
