Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel insists his side ‘will never give up’ after falling 3-0 down to Manchester City in their Champions League quarter-final first leg.
City ran out comfortable winners at the Etihad, two quick-fire second-half goals from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland adding to Rodri’s 27th-minute wonder strike. Pep Guardiola’s side blew Bayern away after the break, kept from running riot by a string of fine saves from Yann Sommer.
Bayern enjoyed the majority of possession and created chances, but came up against an iron-clad Blues defence, while at the other end mistakes from Dayot Upameceno allowed City to capitalise. But even with a three-goal deficit to make up, Tuchel was defiant in refusing to accept game over.
“It’s a huge mountain,” Tuchel admitted to BT Sport when asked about the second leg. “You will not trick me into saying that it’s too big, but it’s big. Now we need to understand and swallow this kind of defeat, I will not allow my players that it creeps into their heads that this is a deserved result and something to worry about, because it’s not something to build on it.
“Of course we have the league match in between – that’s a tight race – but it’s a huge step forward for me today on the sideline. I was proud, I was happy with the performance and we will try. It’s football, it’s a home match, it’s a German team – we will never give up until the shower is warm after the match.”
Bayern enjoyed the better of the opening 20 minutes until Rodri’s opener, and continued to enjoy plenty of the ball even if they lacked the cutting edge to create clear chances. But Tuchel remained stubborn in taking the positives from his side’s performance.
“I loved how we played,” the German insisted. “I liked it a lot, the first 70 minutes. We got brutally punished for not a lot, almost nothing with a shot of the left foot of Rodri and half an own goal because we conceded from a big individual mistake.
“We played a very good first half, even better second half and if we got the goal we deserved, the momentum could have totally shifted in our direction. I was very happy on the sideline, very happy with the attitude and performance. It sounds a bit silly because it’s 3-0 but we got punished brutally.”
