DFB.de: How difficult was it to motivate yourself for the Freiburg match, three days after the Champions League exit against Barcelona?
Boateng: Obviously it wasn't the easiest game for us after having just been eliminated from the Champions League on Tuesday, but we are professionals and wanted to win the game. We might not have played as well as against Barcelona. We desperately wanted to reach the cup final and the Champions League final. Unfortunately we were eliminated at the semi-final stage in both competitions. It's a shame. We knew that our main focus would not be on the league but we still take the games seriously and shouldn’t present the opposition with late gifts like against Freiburg. Overall we didn’t play poorly today, but we lacked concentration towards the end of the match and we shouldn’t allow these kind of mistakes to happen.
DFB.de: How will you now prepare yourself for your final week of training and last game?
Boateng: It's good for us to have another game left and that we don't have to end the season with a defeat in Freiburg. We want to win our final game of the campaign for our fans, especially since we will have the championship celebrations with them the next day. We don't want to end our Bundesliga season with a defeat.
The last time FC Bayern München lost three consecutive Bundesliga games was 17 years ago. Following their Champions League exit against FC Barcelona on Tuesday, the already confirmed Bundesliga champions lost away to relegation candidates SC Freiburg in their penultimate game of the season.
World Champion Jérôme Boateng spoke to DFB.de about possible reasons for Bayern's poor form, their last home match of the season and the responsibility towards their fans.
DFB.de: Mr. Boateng, Bayern suffered their third straight league defeat on Saturday, conceding a late winner against Freiburg scored by former team mate Nils Petersen. How disappointed are you?
Jérôme Boateng: It's always disappointing to concede a late goal. It's unacceptable and we shouldn’t allow things like that to happen. We should have made sure we kept the score level and avoided defeat. It's also a shame for our fans, who made the long trip to come here and gave us such great support. We simply have to play better football than we did today. We have to apologise to our fans for today.
DFB.de: Two individual mistakes led to both of Freiburg's goals.
Boateng: Individual mistakes? Our transition from attack to defence is simply not as fast any more. It began with the cup encounter against Dortmund and has continued in the weeks after that.
DFB.de: Why are FC Bayern conceding a lot of goals from counter attacks?
Boateng: Like I said, it has to do with our transitioning. If you lose possession, you have to track back. We have to work together as a team, both in attack and in defence. We're simply not playing the way we did at the start of the season and that's why we had problems against Freiburg.
DFB.de: How difficult was it to motivate yourself for the Freiburg match, three days after the Champions League exit against Barcelona?
Boateng: Obviously it wasn't the easiest game for us after having just been eliminated from the Champions League on Tuesday, but we are professionals and wanted to win the game. We might not have played as well as against Barcelona. We desperately wanted to reach the cup final and the Champions League final. Unfortunately we were eliminated at the semi-final stage in both competitions. It's a shame. We knew that our main focus would not be on the league but we still take the games seriously and shouldn’t present the opposition with late gifts like against Freiburg. Overall we didn’t play poorly today, but we lacked concentration towards the end of the match and we shouldn’t allow these kind of mistakes to happen.
DFB.de: How will you now prepare yourself for your final week of training and last game?
Boateng: It's good for us to have another game left and that we don't have to end the season with a defeat in Freiburg. We want to win our final game of the campaign for our fans, especially since we will have the championship celebrations with them the next day. We don't want to end our Bundesliga season with a defeat.
