Bayern Munich manager Hansi Flick has heaped praises on his team’s mentality after knocking Barcelona out from the ongoing UEFA Champions League with a huge 8-2 win in the quarterfinals.
“I have to pay a huge compliment to the whole team. The way the guys kept up the intensity over the whole 90 minutes was just top-notch. That’s our mentality, that’s what we stand for,” Flick was quoted as saying on the official website of Bayern Munich.
“What I’m also particularly pleased about is that the players who come off the bench seamlessly follow up on their teammates’ performances. That’s absolute team spirit,” he added.
Meanwhile, Flick had fielded his strongest line-up possible. His decision paid dividends in just the fourth minute of the gane when Robert Lewandowski provided Thomas Muller the delivery to score the opener.
Barcelona were quick to response and within three minutes initiated a vicious attack. Left-back Jordi Alba played a cross from the edge to Luis Suarez, but Bayern Munich defender David Alaba mistakenly put it into his own net while trying to cut it away.
In the next few minutes, Barcelona seemed to take the momentum as they produced two more goal plays. One saw Bayern Munich keeper Emanuel Neuer denying, while in the other Lionel Messi ended up hitting the post.
However, the match took a turn on its head when Serge Gnabri and Ivan Perisic had combined for the latter to score Bayern Munich’s second goal. The German side scored another two in the next 10 minutes to go 4-1 up in just half an hour.
“We knew that if we put them under pressure they could make mistakes. We wanted to take advantage of that and it worked out perfectly. Barcelona have an enormous quality in attack, and you could recognise certain automatic behaviour. We had to invest a great deal of effort. It was hard work for our defence, and they coped brilliantly,” the Bayern Munich boss said.
“We’re happy that we were rewarded for our performance, also with the size of the result. But we also know we still have a lot to do. Now it’s time to recuperate and prepare for our next opponents. After all, we start from scratch again with the next game,” he added.
The eight goals scored in Lisbon by Bayern Munich are the most scored by any team in a knockout game in the history of Europe’s premier club competition.