Bayern boss regrets missed opportunities
Monday, 5 November 2007
MUNICH, Nov 4 (AFP): Bayern Munich boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said his side were kicking themselves after their failure to hit the target against Eintracht Frankfurt allowed Hamburg to cut their league lead to just two points.
Unbeaten Bayern drew 0-0 with Frankfurt Saturday at Munich's Allianz Arena, squandering a ratio of 38 shots on target to Frankfurt's five while Hamburg's win over Hertha Berlin puts them within striking distance of Munich.
Hamburg defender Bastian Reinhardt struck a late winner nine minutes from time to clinch a 2-1 home win over Hertha which cut Bayern's six-point lead they held in the middle of October to just two points.
"It's a shame we didn't win," said Bayern's board chairman Rummenigge, after watching Italian striker Luca Toni miss an early opportunity to put his side ahead.
"We deserved to win, we had 38 shots to their five.
"If Toni had scored right at the start, Frankfurt's defensive tactics would have failed straight away.
"They defended well, but we certainly deserved to win.
"Everyone comes here and defends, but we mustn't be knocked out of our stride by that."
Bayern are still undefeated at the top of the Bundesliga after 12 games, but despite fielding their deadly forward combination of Miroslav Klose and Toni, who have bagged 16 league goals between them, they failed to break the deadlock.
"There'll come a home game once in a while where we don't score," said coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.
"We could have been in the lead after just a few seconds, we missed three or four good openings in the first half.
"It got more and more difficult as the match went on.
"We applied a lot of pressure, but today we were a little unlucky too, although I still thought we'd score if we remained patient.
Unbeaten Bayern drew 0-0 with Frankfurt Saturday at Munich's Allianz Arena, squandering a ratio of 38 shots on target to Frankfurt's five while Hamburg's win over Hertha Berlin puts them within striking distance of Munich.
Hamburg defender Bastian Reinhardt struck a late winner nine minutes from time to clinch a 2-1 home win over Hertha which cut Bayern's six-point lead they held in the middle of October to just two points.
"It's a shame we didn't win," said Bayern's board chairman Rummenigge, after watching Italian striker Luca Toni miss an early opportunity to put his side ahead.
"We deserved to win, we had 38 shots to their five.
"If Toni had scored right at the start, Frankfurt's defensive tactics would have failed straight away.
"They defended well, but we certainly deserved to win.
"Everyone comes here and defends, but we mustn't be knocked out of our stride by that."
Bayern are still undefeated at the top of the Bundesliga after 12 games, but despite fielding their deadly forward combination of Miroslav Klose and Toni, who have bagged 16 league goals between them, they failed to break the deadlock.
"There'll come a home game once in a while where we don't score," said coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.
"We could have been in the lead after just a few seconds, we missed three or four good openings in the first half.
"It got more and more difficult as the match went on.
"We applied a lot of pressure, but today we were a little unlucky too, although I still thought we'd score if we remained patient.