Brilliant not quite enough for Bayern
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
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"We dominated our opponents for 150 minutes," captain Philipp Lahm concluded, with semi-final defeat hard to swallow for him and his Bayern team-mates.
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Bayern fell short at the UEFA Champions League semi-final stage for a third season in succession, but there is no shame following their away-goals exit to Atlético.
"The boys pressed relentlessly," said captain Philipp Lahm. "We can be proud of our performance. We dominated our opponents for 150 minutes."
Bayern's resolve looked to be paying off when Xabi Alonso's deflected free-kick gave them a deserved 1-0 lead in Munich, but they were left to wonder what might have been had Jan Oblak not saved Thomas Müller's penalty three minutes later. "We had to score that penalty," lamented Müller. "That would have made it 2-0."
Instead, Bayern went into the break 1-0 up and were undone by a lapse of concentration early in the second period when Antonio Griezmann broke free and slotted in the all-important away goal. Two mistakes thus proved costly in an otherwise near faultless performance.
"It's hard to take," said striker Robert Lewandowski, whose second-half goal was not enough to turn the tide. "We would have deserved to make it to the final."
Many would agree, but it may be that Bayern's failure to score an away goal was even more costly than any lapses at home. As for Guardiola, he will leave Bayern having failed to take them to a UEFA Champions League final in his three years at the club – a gnawing failure given that they were European champions when he arrived.