Bayern Munich played excellent attacking football to thrash Shakhtar Donetsk by 7-0 to reach the quarter finals of UEFA Champions League. There was a big controversy over the third minute red card to Shakhtar defender Olexandr Kucher. But Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola downplayed the importance of this dismissal after the game.
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola made his intentions clear even before the start of the game as he picked 5 attackers in his starting I. Shakhtar defender Olexandr Kucher was dismissed in the 3rd minute and the Ukrainians never recovered from this blow as Bayern Munich run a riot in the entire game. Thomas Muller, Ribery, Lewandowski, Boeteng and the returning hero Badstuber, were all on target for Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich coach Pep Guairdiola was very pleased with the performance of his players in the entire match but said that red card had no impact on the result of the game.
a The game was over after 90 minutes, not after three [the sending-off]. Of course we did play very, very well, but it’s always very difficult in the Champions League,a said Guardiola.
a It was the first time in my coaching career that we played with five forwards. In the first leg we had lots of problems with their defence, so today I decided to play with [Franck] Rib ry and [Arjen] Robben in the middle and [Robert] Lewandowski and [Thomas] MA?ller. We were dominating the game. Shakhtar have really great quality, especially in attack, I knew that. But of course it became a little bit easier when we had an extra player.a
a Congratulations to my team. We will play in the quarter-finals, that is what we expected and what we wanted.a
Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu congratulated Bayern Munich for their win but said that early dismissal ruined his plans.
a Congratulations to Bayern. We weren’t able to carry out our game plan after the early red card. We lost in all aspects of the match. They were mentally stronger too. When [Darijo] Srna went off [injured], the game was finally over for us,a said Lucecsu
a We played with just ten men. We lost this game, there is not so much to say about it. But I feel sad that we lost with such a result.a