Schweinsteiger: Bayern not past Zürich yet
Thursday, August 18, 2011
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Bastian Schweinsteiger felt FC Bayern München could have picked up a bigger advantage than 2-0 in their play-off with FC Zürich and visiting goalkeeper Johnny Leoni agreed.
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After scoring the opener in FC Bayern München's 2-0 UEFA Champions League play-off first-leg victory against FC Zürich, midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger warned that they can expect no easy ride when the teams reconvene at the Stadion Letzigrund next Tuesday.
Though a fine second-half strike from the returning Arjen Robben ensured Bayern are firmly on course for the group stage, a combination of bad luck, misses chances and good goalkeeping from Zürich's Johnny Leoni prevented the home side from further increasing their advantage. UEFA.com rounds up the reaction.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, Bayern midfielder
We still need to survive in Zurich. We know what can happen if we go one behind over there and the crowd gets on our back, so we need to be careful and make sure we're fully focused. I think we got a good result tonight, but it's not going to be easy in Zurich and we can't afford to relax. We played well for the first 20 minutes tonight, but it was only in the second half that our opponents began to tire and we began to create chances. We could have had two or three in the second half, but I'm an optimist and Bayern belong in the Champions League.
Philipp Lahm, Bayern defender
We were very inventive in attack and created a lot of chances, which was important after we struggled in our last couple of games. You can only be as good as your opponents allow you to be, but I think we put in a really good performance tonight. We're still developing and we have to qualify next week, but this was a good result.
Manuel Neuer, Bayern goalkeeper
We're going to have to put in another good performance, but I think we're on our way. I think it's going to be a different game in Zurich. They'll want to put us under more pressure and force us into defensive errors. We're not through yet.
Johnny Leoni, Zürich goalkeeper
I think it was a good result for us. If you consider the amount of chances Bayern had, 2-0 is the minimum they should have come away with. I think we still have a small chance in the second leg, but it's going to be very difficult. We certainly didn't perform at our best today and even though Bayern could have done a lot better, they still won 2-0.
Mathieu Beda, Zürich defender
There's always a chance. We're playing at home in front of our own fans. If we approach the game with confidence, then we can still achieve something with the quality we have. In the first half Bayern didn't really create that many chances. Unfortunately we conceded an early goal and in the second half we didn't play as well. We're at our best when we get forward quickly and combine, but unfortunately we were unable to show that today. We'll have to improve in the second leg.