Robert Lewandowski got really emotional after FC Bayern’s 1-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. But for the captain of the record champions from Munich, his moving message wasn’t about football. “We are all against war and didn’t think it would come to this. It hurts to see that,” said the Bundesliga top scorer about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and appealed: “The situation is dramatic and the whole world must support Ukraine.”
Lewandowski himself made a strong statement: he wore a captain’s armband in the Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow on Saturday evening. “Sport cannot take itself out. We must not accept what is happening there, ”emphasized the world footballer. The star of the Polish national team had already made a clear statement beforehand. His team was scheduled to play in Russia on March 24 in the play-offs for the World Cup in Qatar. If the Russians made it to the final, their opponents would be Sweden or the Czech Republic on March 29th.
All three opponents declared at the weekend that they will not play Russia. “It’s the right decision! I can’t imagine playing a game against the Russian national team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues,” Lewandowski wrote. “Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we cannot pretend that nothing is happening.”
Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann was also mingled with jubilation and relief at the three points on Saturday evening with serious and concerned tones about the war in Ukraine. “I could not have imagined that this would happen to this extent in Europe. That’s awful. I’m rarely afraid, but in this case I am,” Nagelsmann confessed.
Lewandowski and Co. had previously ignored the dramatic events in Eastern Europe on the pitch and delivered a strong performance. “I am very happy with the performance. We recently had a phase where we weren’t so confident in the games. We had good control today,” said Nagelsmann and stated: “The win was important.”
The key to success was a very good duel quota. Bayern won 62 percent of the direct duels in the 90 fast-paced minutes in front of 25,000 fans. “That’s something special in Frankfurt,” stressed Nagelsmann. The defense against the outstanding Niklas Süle only allowed the committed and powerful Hessians one big chance that Filip Kostic was unable to take advantage of in the early stages.
Only in the end did the league leaders have problems, which was also due to the strong Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. As in the 2-1 victory for Eintracht in the first leg, he thwarted several opportunities for Bayern, for which only joker Leroy Sané (71st minute) scored after a wonderful pass from Joshua Kimmich, who was in a brilliant mood. “It was an unbelievably good ball from Josh, who acted very cleverly, confidently and dominantly in the build-up play,” said Nagelsmann.
Kimmich himself passed on the praise to the entire team. “The mentality was really good today. We pushed ourselves very hard in the last 15 minutes not to concede a goal. That’s fun too,” said the midfielder. “The win was very important and the manner was also right.”
With their 19th win of the season, Bayern took another step towards their tenth championship title in a row. “It has to be our aim to get the lead to the finish line,” emphasized Kimmich. At the same time, however, he warned against complacency: “There is still a long way to go. We’ve had several moments where you felt like that’s it. If we stumble a game or two, things will get tight again. We have to do our homework.”
Attack on Ukraine
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Between rubble and Molotov cocktails
The next task already has it all. Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen will visit Munich next Saturday. “They do it really well and are of great quality. It’s going to be a cool game that I’m looking forward to,” said Kimmich.
Nagelsmann hopes that the global political situation will stabilize again by then. “I wish that people understand that we are all just guests on this beautiful planet and deal with each other peacefully in order to be able to enjoy life. At the moment it is anything but enjoyable. Therefore, the situation should be ended as soon as possible.”
