What an evening of soccer at the Prinzenpark – and what a feeling at FC Bayern afterwards. Despite the spectacular 4:5 defeat in the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, there is no resignation among the Munich players, but rather confidence. Midfield boss Joshua Kimmich summed up this unusual mood aptly after the game
„It feels strange now after the game, because of course we’re losing. We’re losing by one goal,“ the 31-year-old explained on Prime Video. And yet there was immediate hope: „You’re already sitting in the dressing room and have the feeling that something is still possible.“
Kimmich sees strong Bayern – and clear mistakes
The game started promisingly from Bayern’s point of view. „To be honest, I thought we started very well. The first 15 or 20 minutes,“ said Kimmich. The record champions could even have gone one better in this phase: „I think we need to make it 2-0 with Michael, who is then alone in front of goal.“
Instead, the game turned on its own mistakes: „We then make a cross-field pass, have a misplaced pass in the build-up, where we actually bring Paris into the game a little bit,“ the international analyzed. A goal conceded from a set-piece was also particularly annoying: „That shouldn’t happen to us under any circumstances.“
Kimmich was also critical of the refereeing decisions, especially the handball penalty before the break. „I didn’t see the handball penalty again. It was also rather unfortunate,“ he said and even went a step further: „I think the rule could be adapted so that not every handball in the sixteen is a penalty.“
Despite falling behind: Bayern believe in the comeback
Despite trailing 2:5 at one stage, Bayern showed morale and fought their way back into the game. That is precisely what makes Kimmich optimistic for the second leg in Munich. „At least we showed a very good reaction,“ he emphasized
He couldn’t shake off the feeling that more could have been possible: „You stood on the pitch and thought, boah, what’s going on here, because we weren’t three goals worse by any means.“
The final phase in particular showed that Munich were able to control the game better again: „You get the feeling that there really is still something in it, even though we lost the first leg unfortunately.“
The starting position ahead of the second leg is clear for Kimmich – and at the same time deceptively simple: „In quotation marks, we just have to win. So that’s the funny thing, that’s dangerous.“
Nevertheless, his belief in his own strength prevails: „I’ve never felt so comfortable with defeat,“ explained the midfielder, summing up the special dynamic of this match
Despite everything, his conclusion was confident: „I do believe that we can win.“ He continued: „The starting position is simple. We have to win and in the end we will do everything we can to win.“
The message from the Bayern dressing room is clear: this defeat has not destroyed faith – if anything, it has strengthened it.