Reaction to Bayer Leverkusen match – Serge Gnabry: ‘It’s a great sign’

Despite seven changes to the team from the midweek win over Köln in the DFB Cup, Bayern claimed a 3-0 victory at home to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on Saturday with an all-round convincing display. “It’s a great sign from the coach to pick players who haven’t been so fortunate. For them to then perform like this is great. It makes us much stronger as a unit when you come out with a result like this against such an opponent,” said Serge Gnabry, who scored the opening goal. “We’ve won 15 matches – that’s good, but we need to keep it going. It’s not enough. I’m looking forward to PSG. We’ve earned the right to go there full of enthusiasm,” added head coach Vincent Kompany, already looking ahead to the next challenge. fcbayern.com rounds up the reaction to the game.

Reaction to the match against Bayer Leverkusen

Max Eberl (board member for sport): “It’s just a delight to watch this team. It’s a delight to feel the energy the team is playing with. Before the game, many people were probably wondering what was going on, but the coaching staff put a lot of thought into what and how they can do things. The coach backs the team and the team validated that trust from the first minute. I often came up against Bayern from the other side. When you read there’s two or three people missing, you get a hint of hope. But the team took that away from the very first minute and had a super dominant first half. You can’t begrudge any of them for the second half because the PSG game was already on their minds.”

Vincent Kompany: “Rotation? I call it competition. It’s normal for the opposition to feel motivated when they see there’s a few players not there. It was important for us to keep up the pace from the start. You then need to have the luck to score the goals as well. We did just that. We’ve won 15 matches – that’s good, but we need to keep it going. It’s not enough. I’m looking forward to PSG. We’ve earned the right to go there full of enthusiasm. It needs to be rock ‘n’ roll. They’re confident, we’re confident – it’s a great match.”

Manuel Neuer: “We know what good guys we’ve got. They then also showed that. We didn’t have any fear, because we know the team, know the players. So, it was really cool. Everyone knows what they have to do. The confidence is there, no matter what position and who starts there. We saw that from the first minute. We’ve continued to improve the patterns of play that we started working on last year. Everyone knows them now, so it’s having an effect this season. It’s 50-50 against PSG. They’re a good team, but we can cause them problems. We’re looking forward to the game.”

Serge Gnabry: “Leverkusen have started well, are playing good football again, so what we did today was a statement. For my goal it was a perfect ball from Tom [Bischof]. It had the perfect distance. I could take it perfectly in my stride and then finished well. We’re very well placed, have all performed well. It’s a great sign from the coach to pick players who haven’t been so fortunate. For them to then perform like this is great. It makes us much stronger as a unit when you come out with a result like this against such an opponent. Paris and Bayern have great respect for each other. The last few games were always even and mostly won by the team that scored the first goal. It’s going to be a cracker. We’re going there with confidence and hoping for a win.”

Reaction from Bayer Leverkusen

Kasper Hjulmand (head coach): “Bayern are one of the top three teams in Europe. They punished us in three or four situations where we need to do better. We’re not pleased and have a lot of work to do. All in all, Bayern were the better team. We need to acknowledge that.”

Robert Andrich (captain): “The goals were way to sloppy by us. When you’re 3-0 down at half-time, it’s almost impossible to get something in Munich. We covered a lot of ground but too much of it at the same pace. We were always too slow. The second goal was an example of that. No pressure out wide, no contact in the middle. You invite Bayern to score there, no matter who’s playing.”

Read more about the game in our report: