Bayern exceed Ribéry's expectations

Franck Ribéry admitted FC Bayern München had surpassed even their own lofty expectations as they put Sporting Clube de Portugal to the sword in Lisbon, taking a giant stride towards the UEFA Champions League last 16 with a 5-0 win – the highest ever triumph in the first leg of the knockout stages.

'Difficult period'
The talismanic French international was at his scheming best, scoring the crucial opener three minutes before half-time at the Estádio José Alvalade to wrest control of the tie and from then on it was one-way traffic. Miroslav Klose made it 2-0 before Ribéry struck again from the spot, the mercurial winger then adopting his more usual assisting role as he teed up two late goals for Luca Toni. "I never imagined we would win 5-0 before the start of the match," he told uefa.com, "but we wanted to put in a really good performance – we were serious, committed and scored the goals to set us up for the second leg. It puts us in a great position to qualify, and we're very happy about that, especially because we were going through a difficult period with two defeats in a row."

Knockout focus
Indeed, Bayern have stumbled out of the blocks after the winter break in Germany, losing three of their four Bundesliga fixtures and falling off the pace in their league defence. They displayed no tentativeness in Portugal, however, and Ribéry believes the extra pressure of the knockout stages has helped sharpen minds at a crucial stage of the campaign. "The competitions are very different," explained the 25-year-old. "We have games to spare in the league to make up lost ground. In the Champions League there are only two matches so we had to take control of the situation straight away. We aim to go as far as possible in the Bundesliga, German Cup and the Champions League."

Freedom
Bayern centre-back Daniel Van Buyten attributed the German side's fluency to another aspect of playing in the UEFA Champions League, thriving on the openness and extra space available. "A lot of teams, particularly in the Bundesliga, are scared when they play Bayern," he said. "They get ten men behind the ball and play on the counterattack, and that has made it very difficult for us. We were aiming not to concede tonight, but as it was we managed to gain control and we're all set for the next stage." That, Van Buyten conceded, was mainly down to one man. "Franck was great," he said. "He's indispensable to us. Even when things weren't going for us at the start of the game he worked to bring us into it, and in the end we made it easier for ourselves."