Early resilience key to Bayern blitz

FC Bayern München coach Jürgen Klinsmann was delighted his players weathered the early storm before producing a clincial display of attacking football at Sporting Clube de Portugal with an ultimately comfortable first-leg victory in Lisbon. Home coach Paulo Bento refused to lay the blame for the heavy reverse at the feet of his defenders, insisting the whole side lapsed into "anarchy" when Bayern struck twice in six second-half minutes to surge 3-0 ahead.

Jürgen Klinsmann, Bayern coach
We prepared well for this match. We knew it was going to be necessary to resist their initial pressure and we had some luck during that period as we managed to save a goal over the goalline. After that [Franck] Ribéry scored a solo effort, then the second came and the game was over as we waited comfortably for Sporting's reaction. We have to continue like this in the other matches and right away against Bremen in the Bundesliga.

We managed to keep a clean sheet in the first 20 minutes and we realised that Sporting had a lot of respect for us. To score five goals is something positive of course because it opens our way to the quarter-finals after some poor results. But we must not get carried away with this result. Sporting played well, especially in the first half where they attacked a lot down the right flank. We had the positive of scoring first because we knew they were a dangerous team if they did that.

Paulo Bento, Sporting coach
Sporting's defensive quartet was the same that played in many, many matches and [Leandro] Romagnoli also played a lot as well, so it wasn't because of them that we lost. After the third goal we had a lack of organisation and went down psychologically but the score at half-time [1-0] was not fair. During the first half we were a good team and no one could predict what happened in the second half. We had the chance to equalise but conceded two goals in six minutes. There was anarchy in the team and we didn't have the capacity to continue in the game and try to score a goal against strong and mature opponents.

The result is too heavy as we created many chances to score, particularly in the first half. On Saturday [against SL Benfica] everything was perfect, but not today. That's the life of a coach and we have to live with that. There is a sense of frustration. Even knowing that the other team was very strong, a result like this is not usual at this stage of the Champions League. We have to analyse the errors and show character and personality on Saturday [at FC Porto]. Even the best teams have their bad moments. Life doesn't end here.