Bayern Munich’s headcoach Pep Guardiola (left) speaks with defender Holger Badstuber during a training session.
DPA/Munich
Bayern Munich are 11 points clear at the top of the Bundesliga but the German giants welcome Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League round of 16 second leg today in a game which could define their season.
“We always have a duty to progress,” goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said Monday. “Especially in the early phases of the knock-out stage.
“We know that we have to concentrate and control the counter-attacks. Essentially we want to win every game. Now we are obliged to win. We like such situations.”
After drawing the first leg 0-0 in Lviv, Bayern are in a good position but without an away goal, they are far from guaranteed to progress.
“We’ll need a top performance because it’ll be a very, very tough game (against Shakhtar),” sport director Matthias Sammer said. “But we’re ready.”
Sammer, himself a Champions League winner as a player in 1997, has previously made it clear he believes the team is ready to repeat the Champions League victory from 2013.
“The mix of this team is exceptional and must, in my opinion, once again lead to winning the Champions League this season or next,” Sammer said previously.
This season or next includes the final year of coach Pep Guardiola’s contract in 2016. And the Spanish coach, despite his impressive array of titles, knows what a challenge he faces.
“It is a big task for me to maintain the level of Jupp Heynckes,” he has said in reference to the coach which led Bayern to a historic 2013 treble which saw the league and cup added to the Champions League title.
Bayern strolled to the Bundesliga last season under Guardiola and added the German Cup after an edgy final against Borussia Dortmund. But Munich were crushed in the semi-finals of the Champions League by Real Madrid.
That defeat, a 5-0 humbling over two legs, did not just knock Bayern out of a competition but caused outsiders to question Guardiola’s philosophy of patient tiki-taki possession football. Real, showing no desire to keep the ball for the sake of it, dismantled Bayern by breaking at lightning pace and utilising set pieces.
Improvement on the continental stage is widely considered a requirement despite Guardiola’s frequent pleas that the bread and butter of the Bundesliga is his main focus.
Guardiola’s honours as coach of Barcelona include the Champions League crowns in 2009 and 2011. And having the likes of Neuer, in addition to fellow World Cup winners Philipp Lahm, Jerome Boateng and Bastian Schweinsteiger, and further stars such as Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben is why Sammer is able to demand that the coach secure another victory in Europe.
