FC Bayern Forum

Despite playing with ten men for an hour on Friday night, Bayern completed the first half of the Bundesliga programme with a 3-0 victory over Köln, and will spend Christmas at the top of the table for the 17th time. The mood in the FCB camp was upbeat afterwards. "We dominated the match and translated our footballing class into goals," said Jupp Heynckes, praising his team for "responding magnificently" to Franck Ribéry's dismissal.

Reaction to Bayern v Köln

Jupp Heynckes: "Köln parked the bus today. I've rarely seen a team with such a defensive approach. Ribery's sending off made it even more difficult, but my team responded magnificently. We struck at the decisive moments, we let them have nothing at all, and we kept our discipline. We fully deserved to win, and it was the right margin of victory too. We dominated the match and translated our footballing class into goals. Once we have Schweinsteiger back, and once Robben is fully fit again, we'll certainly do well in the second half of the season."

Uli Hoeneß: "I can understand Köln playing so defensively when it was eleven-a-side, but I didn't get it when they kept on defending at a man up but a goal down. Our second half display was terrific, and you wouldn't necessarily have expected it at half-time. Last summer, Jupp Heynckes came in as the right coach for this football club's bruised soul. Since he's been here, it's been totally calm at FC Bayern. We're currently in the best possible shape."

Mario Gomez: "You always enjoy it when you win. It's a shame there are still teams who choose to play the way Köln did today. I've never experienced that before. They strung ten across the back. But we invested a lot and we were rewarded for it. It was hard work."

Stale Solbakken (FC Köln coach): "The first half was perfect, but after going a goal down, we didn't have the energy to stage a comeback. You could see it was our third game in six days."

Michael Rensing (FC Köln keeper): "We tried everything we could with the resources available to us. In the first half, we basically did what we set out to do. The first two goals were both avoidable, but it killed us. Bayern were the better team and deserved to win."