‘They can’t cope with the intensity in top football’
Thomas Muller has claimed that Barcelona couldn’t ‘handle the intensity’ of Bayern Munich during their Champions League clash on Wednesday night.
Bayern won the game comfortably at the Allianz Arena – beating Barça 3-0 to knock them out of the Champions League at the group stage for the first time since the 2000/01 season and condemn them to the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Muller opened the scoring on the night with a header that creeped just over the line despite Barcelona’s efforts to clear it off the line, and the German admitted that he felt that Bayern’s opponents couldn’t cope with their performance.
“I think Barça can’t cope with the intensity,” Muller told DAZN.
“Technically, they have it all, they are great players tactically and technically.
“But they can’t cope with the intensity in top football.”
After the game, Barcelona boss Xavi gave a passionate post-match interview in which he said he was ‘p****d off” by his team’s display.
“I’m angry,” he told Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo.
“This is the reality and it p****s me off. We have to tackle it face on. There’s nothing else for it. A new era starts today. We start from zero.
“I have seen a very harsh reality, unfortunately sometimes I also lived it as a player and what I have said to the players, we do not have to settle, we have to reveal ourselves. It is difficult to assume it but it is what there is and we need to start from scratch.
“Today, Bayern were better than us, they were superior.
“We have tried; we have pressed high, taken the ball from them but our situation is the harsh reality that we have.”
Related links:
- How Bayern Munich fans fought their club over its Qatar commercial deal
- Barcelona knocked out of Champions league at group stage for first time since 2000
- Joshua Kimmich confirms he won’t play until 2022 due to lung infection
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