Guardiola Applauds Bayern’S Defensive Cohesion
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola applauded his team’s defensive cohesion on Wednesday after they edged past Bayer Leverkusen to the DFB Pokal semi-finals.
After the quarter-final tie in Leverkusen ended scoreless through 120 minutes, Bayern’s five penalty takers all converted, while goalkeeper Manuel Neuer saved Josip Drmic’s opener for the hosts to give the Bavarian visitors victory.
Leverkusen dominated the match with 12 shots to five, although both teams finished with three efforts on target, but Guardiola claimed his team produced a better defensive performance than in their previous meeting with Roger Schmidt’s men.
In December, Bayern won 1-0 in Munich but Guardiola claimed he had spent a lot of time drilling his team in dealing with Leverkusen’s counter-attacks following that Bundesliga fixture.
“If Bayer Leverkusen wins the ball they are looking for direct contact with the strikers. This is accomplished with players like Julian Brandt or particularly Karim Bellarabi,” the Spaniard said at his media conference.
“That is not easy. We wanted to prevent these counter situations. In our home game against Bayer Leverkusen we had problems in the game design. We have done better today.
“Of course, it is not possible to deny all counter-attacks by Bayer Leverkusen for 90 minutes. But we have allowed less than in the game in Munich.”
Bayern will face bitter rivals Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Pokal semi-finals, while third-tier club Arminia Bielefeld will host Wolfsburg for the other spot in the competition’s decider.
