By Nathalia Araújo, dpa
Berlin (dpa) – Robert Lewandowski played his usual hero role but his goal was not enough to avoid a debacle at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday evening and Bayern Munich’s elimination of the Champions League.
Samuel Chukwueze scored two minutes from time to secure Villarreal a 1-1 second leg draw. A week after their 1-0 win at home, the Spanish side once again stunned the German giants, who crashed out of the competition in the quarter-finals for the second consecutive year.
After also exiting the German Cup earlier in the season, Bayern now have only one trophy to fight for: the Bundesliga, which for coach Julian Nagelsmann is not enough.
“Winning only the league title is not enough for Bayern,” he said. “The Champions League semi-final is always the minimum goal. We didn’t manage to achieve that,” the coach recognized.
Even so, Nagelsmann, who’s yet to win a major title in his coaching career, believes his team “played one of our best games in recent months.”
“The first leg was the key. We didn’t play well there and lost the duel. Today we did well,” he said.
With five games left in the Bundesliga, including the clash with second-placed Borussia Dortmund on April 23, Nagelsmann and Bayern will need to work hard to bounce back from what many players called a “very bitter defeat.”
The coach himself said the match against Villarreal was “certainly one of the top three” most brutal defeats of his coaching career, while midfielder Thomas Müller added that “accepting this defeat is extremely difficult.”
Bayern chief Oliver Kahn said one “can’t really blame the players, they tried everything.” But club bosses will be left with a lot of issues to solve and unanswered questions in the coming weeks.
Bayern’s policy of spending just enough in the transfer market might be starting to hurt their title goals. At the same time, the squad lost important names since their last Champions League title in 2020, such as defenders David Alaba and Jerome Boateng.
Next on the departing list is defender Niklas Süle, who’s moving to league rivals Borussia Dortmund for free in the summer.
Meanwhile, Bayern need to deal with contract extensions for their current squad.
While midfielders Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich have already signed new deals, stars like top scorer Lewandowski, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and midfielder Serge Gnabry have only one year left in their contracts.
Nagelsmann, meanwhile, will need to make sure his team is in form for the next five games and secure that the last trophy in sight will end up at the Allianz Arena.
Be the first to comment on "Lewandowski not enough to fulfill Nagelsmann quarter-finals goals"