Another setback

“Have to deliver”: Bayern worries ahead of Lazio game

According to Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel, the league setback in Freiburg does little to dampen his confidence ahead of the all-important Champions League home game against Lazio Rome on Tuesday (9pm). However, he also emphasized: "We have to deliver". The worries in Munich about being eliminated are great.

"These ups and downs have been with us for a long time," said the coach, who is leaving at the end of the season, after the 2:2 draw on Friday. That is why it is "not out of the question" that his team will deliver a top performance in the second leg of the last 16 of the Premier League.

According to Tuchel, they will need that if they are to progress against the Italians after the 0:1 in the first leg. Discipline and attention are required. They will now "push themselves positively in preparation for Rome. And then we have to deliver." The Champions League is Munich's most realistic remaining chance of winning the title. They have been eliminated from the DFB Cup, while league leaders Bayer Leverkusen could extend their lead over the serial champions to ten points with a derby win in Cologne on Sunday.

"We don't need to talk about that tonight," said Bayern's sporting director Christoph Freund about the record champions' chances of winning their twelfth league title in a row. "We have to make sure we're more consistent." It was the first game with sporting director Max Eberl as his new superior. Salzburger Freund, who has been in office since the beginning of September, was also "convinced that we will progress on Tuesday". Bayern had "already shown several times that we have a really good team and quality".

Only one win in five games
In the last five competitive games, however, Munich have only managed one win - last week's 2-1 victory over RB Leipzig, the first game after the decision to part ways with Tuchel in the summer. The former coach clearly criticized his team for their performance in the first half hour in Freiburg. He had no explanation for it, said the 50-year-old. "We played in the same basic order, demanded the same things. But the difference in body language and determination between the first and second half was striking."

ÖFB team player Konrad Laimer came on in the 64th minute and his fellow countryman Michael Gregoritsch, who was also substituted, set up Freiburg's 2:2 in the 87th minute. His team "deserved to have turned the game around", said Tuchel. On the one hand, the late equalizer robbed them of their deserved reward. "On the other hand, we missed so much in the first half that we perhaps couldn't have expected it."