Rueful Reds reflect on missed opportunity

FCBayernNews · News fetcher Joined: 31 Aug 2006 Posts: 1321 votes: 2

23.11.2006

At around half-past midnight local time, as the Bayern party was preparing to board their Lufthansa flight back to Munich from Moscow's Sheremetyevo 2 airport, news of the evening result from Milan began to do the rounds. Internazionale had defeated Sporting Lisbon 1-0 to seal the second qualifying berth in Group B. After losing their first two matches, the Italians have since amassed nine points and could still knock Bayern (11 pts) off top spot when the teams meet in the final group fixture.

"That's a shame. We could have avoided this showdown," general manager Uli Hoeneß mused, voicing the feelings of the entire party at that moment in time. Munich were held to a 2-2 draw by Russian runners-up Spartak Moscow, but the Bavarians know full well they could easily have collected maximum points from an at times enthralling match.

Point gained, two dropped

"We've earned a point but thrown two away," coach Felix Magath succinctly summarised. Munich led until 20 minutes from the end courtesy of a Claudio Pizarro brace (22, 36), yet again coming from behind after Maxym Kalynychenko had opened the scoring on 16 minutes. Unfortunately from a Bayern point-of-view, Radoslav Kovac equalised from close range after a corner.

"We're all pretty down. We're angry at failing to clinch the win," Bastian Schweinsteiger fumed. "We didn't look at all good at two set plays, so we've robbed ourselves of a deserved victory. It would have been easy enough to win here today," criticised chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Makaay and Van Buyten out of luck

It was not that the visitors had no chances. "Unfortunately, we failed to put away our openings on the break in the second half," Magath confirmed. Roy Makaay was denied by home keeper Aleksei Zuev when he was poised to wrap up the points on 70 minutes, and Daniel van Buyten steered a stoppage time header wide of the goal from point-blank range. "I'm not going to be able to sleep after that," the downcast defender lamented.

Nevertheless, the Bayern camp was generally satisfied with a fluent display on the unaccustomed artificial turf. "Given the playing surface, I think we saw a pretty good game. I'm basically very satisfied. I reckon we deserved to win," Hoeneß stated. "I was pleased at a good performance by my team, but we've not got the reward we deserved," Magath echoed.

Chairman: We'll win group

The result means Bayern remain undefeated on the European stage this term. "Three wins and two draws ain't bad," Hoeneß declared. Rummenigge remains convinced his men can avoid a first defeat in the winner-takes-all clash with Inter at the Allianz Arena on 5 December: "We only need a draw, and I'm absolutely certain we'll get at least that."

MUTU

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