As the season is nearing its conclusion, second placed RB Leipzig and champions FC Bayern München traded blows to produce a nine-goal thriller in one of the most entertaining games of the campaign. In the end, the champions edged out Leipzig despite trailing by two goals on two occasions during the 95 minutes. Afterwards, World champion Thomas Müller spoke with DFB.de on the extraordinary nature of this encounter and his teams’ last-minute victory.
Question: Mr. Müller, have you ever experienced a game like that before in your career? From a 3-1 and 4-2 deficit Bayern were able to recover and claim a 5-4 win in a crazy game with RB Leipzig.
Thomas Müller: Yes, it was a crazy game. A game, that for long spells, was not going according to our liking. We showed good morale in the end. But generally we want to avoid getting in these types of situations in the first place.
Question: What was the problem for the champions – at least until you started the comeback from the 60th minute onwards with Thiago’s goal to make it 3-2?
Müller: It was a real treat for the spectators. For us, it didn’t feel that pleasant for a time, but the finish was outstanding and there were many positive emotions on display. If we would play this game again, it probably wouldn’t always work out in the way, that we would score the equaliser in the 90th minute and then get the winner in stoppage time. But in the last 15 minutes there was just one team playing on the pitch – and that was us.
Question: How does this last-minute victory feel? The team and the coaching staff celebrated this win euphorically with the fans in the stadium. A well-timed pointer to Leipzig in regard to next season?
Müller: It was great for our heads – but what happens next year is yet to be seen. Let’s just wait and see, but we definitely wanted to set an example.
Question: Because this game also resembled the battle for supremacy in German football?
Müller: That should be obvious, I think. It was a heated and emotional game. Each team wanted to show the other side who is stronger. It would certainly have been painful for us to suffer a 3-1 defeat here. But you could clearly see: If you provoke us, we definitely want to show a reaction.
Question: There was a point in the game where Leipzig played the ball around as if it was a training session. Did you feel humiliated at any point?
Müller: Afterwards it’s easy to stand here and say: Yes, that was the case. It was a little irritating. As a neutral spectator your thoughts in those situations are: Perhaps they shouldn’t have done that. The fans got behind their team and you can’t hold that against them. But in the end we did get revenge.
Question: What was Leipzig able to learn from this game, especially in regard to their first Champions League participation next season?
Müller: They definitely will learn from this. You learn from every situation, every experience and Leipzig will probably take something from this game. But the Champions League only begins in September and both teams will be in a different state then.
Question: You celebrated Arjen Robben’s winner quite emotionally – perhaps even more than after the 6-0 victory in Wolfsburg which secured you the title.
Müller: No, we celebrated the title in Wolfsburg and it was great. We just wanted to turn the game around today and actually managed to pull it off. We had a small party and felt some satisfaction. But we were also a bit upset with ourselves.
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As the season is nearing its conclusion, second placed RB Leipzig and champions FC Bayern München traded blows to produce a nine-goal thriller in one of the most entertaining games of the campaign. In the end, the champions edged out Leipzig despite trailing by two goals on two occasions during the 95 minutes. Afterwards, World champion Thomas Müller spoke with DFB.de on the extraordinary nature of this encounter and his teams’ last-minute victory.
Question: Mr. Müller, have you ever experienced a game like that before in your career? From a 3-1 and 4-2 deficit Bayern were able to recover and claim a 5-4 win in a crazy game with RB Leipzig.
Thomas Müller: Yes, it was a crazy game. A game, that for long spells, was not going according to our liking. We showed good morale in the end. But generally we want to avoid getting in these types of situations in the first place.
Question: What was the problem for the champions – at least until you started the comeback from the 60th minute onwards with Thiago’s goal to make it 3-2?
Müller: It was a real treat for the spectators. For us, it didn’t feel that pleasant for a time, but the finish was outstanding and there were many positive emotions on display. If we would play this game again, it probably wouldn’t always work out in the way, that we would score the equaliser in the 90th minute and then get the winner in stoppage time. But in the last 15 minutes there was just one team playing on the pitch – and that was us.
Question: How does this last-minute victory feel? The team and the coaching staff celebrated this win euphorically with the fans in the stadium. A well-timed pointer to Leipzig in regard to next season?
Müller: It was great for our heads – but what happens next year is yet to be seen. Let’s just wait and see, but we definitely wanted to set an example.
Question: Because this game also resembled the battle for supremacy in German football?
Müller: That should be obvious, I think. It was a heated and emotional game. Each team wanted to show the other side who is stronger. It would certainly have been painful for us to suffer a 3-1 defeat here. But you could clearly see: If you provoke us, we definitely want to show a reaction.
Question: There was a point in the game where Leipzig played the ball around as if it was a training session. Did you feel humiliated at any point?
Müller: Afterwards it’s easy to stand here and say: Yes, that was the case. It was a little irritating. As a neutral spectator your thoughts in those situations are: Perhaps they shouldn’t have done that. The fans got behind their team and you can’t hold that against them. But in the end we did get revenge.
Question: What was Leipzig able to learn from this game, especially in regard to their first Champions League participation next season?
Müller: They definitely will learn from this. You learn from every situation, every experience and Leipzig will probably take something from this game. But the Champions League only begins in September and both teams will be in a different state then.
Question: You celebrated Arjen Robben’s winner quite emotionally – perhaps even more than after the 6-0 victory in Wolfsburg which secured you the title.
Müller: No, we celebrated the title in Wolfsburg and it was great. We just wanted to turn the game around today and actually managed to pull it off. We had a small party and felt some satisfaction. But we were also a bit upset with ourselves.
