Even an expert on soccer madness like oliver kahn needed a night to understand that the seemingly surreal 8-2 triumph of his FC bayern against FC barcelona was real.
“Only now do i realize what really happened yesterday at the estadio da luz,” tweeted the former goalkeeper titan, who celebrated the title triple in his first year on the munich board of management.
“What an incredible champions league night – we will remember it for a long time to come. I am so proud of this team. Thanks guys for a breathtaking 90 minutes,” enthused kahn, who is very close to the top favorite for the final tournament in portugal at the team headquarters. In the “penha longo resort” not far from lisbon, the insatiable munich title and goal cannibals around leader thomas muller and their entourage were still floating on cloud nine over the weekend.
Hansi flick loved his pros the historic humiliation of lionel messi’s barca for a night, but the coach also quickly pulled the euphoria plug again. The crown project “campeões de lisboa” would only be completed with the title win.
“Now it”s a matter of letting it sink in. And then to prepare for the next game in such a way to achieve what we want: to be at the top,” said the 55-year-old, looking ahead to the next K.O.-duel this wednesday against olympique lyon, who beat manchester city with former bayern coach pep guardiola 3:1 (1:0) on saturday and knocked them out of the competition. A german final against RB leipzig, which has to play paris saint-germain with coach thomas tuchel, is no longer a vision. For the first time, three german coaches and their clubs reach the semifinals. “I am naturally happy for thomas and also for julian,” said flick.
He wants to triumph in lisbon with the bavarians, of course. After four bitter semi-final defeats in europe"s top flight in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, munich"s hunger for the final is huge. A further failure seems hardly possible with this bavarian fubball steamroller, which seems unbeatable at the moment. The power of the attack around goalminator robert lewandowski is impressive, flick has formed a conspiratorial unit as a konigsklasse newcomer. "It"s not like saying, now we"re going to turn on the team spirit and then you play like this," muller remarked on the development under flick.
The munich stars themselves described their record-breaking spectacle in the 250th match as "incomprehensible". Konigsklassenspiel, which flick, typically unspectacular for him, belittled as a "little duftmarke". "We really played with a brutal focus," said joshua kimmich, one of the goal scorers along with muller (2), ivan perisic, serge gnabry, lewandowski and barca loanee philippe coutinho (2). 39 goals have been scored by bayern"s goal express in its nine victories so far on its march to a third champions league title.
And now it’s really getting started in portugal. "We’re not at the end of the road yet," announced kimmich. The in the midfield barenstarke muskelprotz leon goretzka said: "that was a step of three."
Two steps are still to the triple, the second after 2013 under jupp heynckes. At that time there was in the semifinals in the total result of two games a 7-0 against barcelona, which the bayern in lisbon formally destroyed. "We are happy, but we want more," declared sporting director hasan salihamidzic and gushed: "it was a pleasure to watch the boys play."
Guys who never give up, even after a clear 4:1 at the break. "We have always kept going," stressed captain manuel neuer, who clearly won the goalkeeper duel with marc-andre ter stegen. "I’m a little sorry for marc that he conceded so many goals. You wouldn’t wish that on a teammate in the national team," said neuer, who has been number 1 ahead of ter stegen in the DFB rankings for years.
Flick made a "huge compliment" to his team. He praised the high intensity right up to the final whistle: "that’s our mentality, that’s what we stand for."In the end, "the goals fell as if in a frenzy," goretzka described with fascination. Already on saturday flick loves to rewind the normal procedures with regeneration and training of the reservists. "We still have a lot ahead of us," he explained.
The 8:2 victory in front of an empty crowd, which brought back memories of the national team’s 7:1 victory over brazil in the 2014 world cup semifinals, will be handled by former joachim low assistant flick. Six years ago, the century victory of belo horizonte was followed by a zahes 1-0 after verlangerung in the final against argentina.
The pleasantly unagitated and always grounded flick knows what will be decisive in the "here and now": "it’s now a matter of gathering strength for the semi-finals. We know we still have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be in the end."And this is: at the top of european club football.