Reaction to Bundesliga game at Freiburg – Max Eberl: ‘A really big win’

Bayern remain top of the Bundesliga table after beating Freiburg 3-1 away from home on Sunday, leading Borussia Dortmund on goal difference after seven games ahead of next weekend’s Klassiker in Munich. “It was a great performance in a tough place. They’re a top team and in good form right now,” said Aaron Danks, who led Bayern in the absence of head coach Vincent Kompany. Konrad Laimer also expressed his pride at the squad and how they dealt with an unusual situation: “It makes me very proud of the team. We stand together and will just keep doing our thing.” fcbayern.com rounds up the reaction to the game in Freiburg.

Reaction to Bundesliga game away at Freiburg

Max Eberl (board member for sport): “I don’t think we really understand what we’ve achieved this week with all the hurdles we’ve had to overcome. What the team and we as a group have done with the coaching staff is extraordinary. The win means three points, but it was a bigger win than just three points. Obviously we’ve got problems at the moment, but we have our squad and are really happy. The team played an almost perfect away game for over 80 minutes. The way we fought to avoid an equaliser at the end and then made it 3-1. It was a really big win today.”

Eberl on Kompany’s condition:

“Vinnie is stable. He doesn’t have any headaches anymore and will continue to be assessed. We’re just leaving him in peace. He needs to wait for the diagnosis, and then we know what needs to be done. There’s no final diagnosis yet. But the games and wins are the best medicine for him.”

Aaron Danks (assistant coach): “It was a great performance in a tough place. We knew from the start that it’d be very hard here. They’re a top team and in good form right now. In the last 10 minutes, when they turned the momentum their way, the fans got loud and they really went for the equaliser, that was a good test for us. We had to show resilience and character. I think we defended well in those phases. On the whole, I’m really pleased with the day.”

Konrad Laimer: “Freiburg are a good team. We could’ve gone 3-0 up. We had chances but didn’t finish them well. Then they came back and the stadium got up. We got through that spell and made it 3-1. I also think it was deserved. And in this special week it’s really important for me and makes me very proud of the team. It was obviously a very intense week with lots of things going on. Mentally, you’re thinking about all the people affected. We stand together as Bayern. The coaching and backroom staff have done an excellent job. And I’d like to thank everyone on behalf of the team. We stand together and will just keep doing our thing.”

Serge Gnabry: “We’re happy now after the game that we’ve won – also for those who couldn’t be here. My 100th Bundesliga goal is a nice storyline that I didn’t know about. It’s nice I could help the team. The last 15-20 minutes and after conceding were bumpy, but we come away with a 3-1 win, which shows we stayed solid. It’s great how Upa stayed so cool with the first goal. I hope Jo [Kimmich] and Vinnie can be back with us soon.”

Reaction from Freiburg

Julian Schuster (head coach): “It was important that we show a reaction after Thursday, which we did. It was decent at the start. We won the ball back well, but we didn’t make the most of it. We were in the game on the whole. Before the first goal, we could’ve got away a better shot. In the second half, we said we’d be back in it with a goal. In the end, we were closer to make it 2-2 than going down 3-1. We choose this brave approach, so these things can happen. We needed to defend better in a few situations. We could’ve got something out of today. We’ll keep working and still believe that one day the time will come again when we'll pull it off.”

Vincenzo Grifo (midfielder): “Bayern have a lot of quality and didn’t allow many chances. We said at half-time that it could be a dangerous result for Bayern if we got a goal. We then got one back near the end. For them to then hit us on the counter is frustrating. We wanted to press high man to man today. Obviously there’s some risk there, as we saw with the first goal. We did a lot of things right in the second half. We told ourselves that we always need to believe in ourselves.”

Igor Matanović (striker): “We played well again but are left here asking if we deserved more. We can’t blame ourselves too much, but the way Bayern play is impressive. At the end, our stadium gave us momentum again and we felt the energy. We can build on the way we played.”

Read more from the game in our report: