Ex-Sporting player: 12-1 Bayern loss was my career low | OneFootball

Pedro Silva, former full-back for Sporting, spoke about the clash between the Lions and Bayern Munich, scheduled for this Tuesday, December 9 (and there will be changes in the starting eleven). The ex-Lion recalled the tie in which the Alvalade club lost 12-1 to the Bavarians in the round of 16 of the 2008/09 competition.

"I know it's a tie that remains in the fans' memory for all the wrong reasons. We, the players, also try to forget, but it's impossible. The first leg was already bad (5-0), but the second went even worse. Everything went wrong," he began, speaking to the website 'zerozero'.

The former footballer recalled the meeting before the second leg: "Imagine what it's like to lose the first leg 5-0 and then still have to prepare for the away game. From there, it was just about trying to suffer as little as possible, that's what the players talked about among themselves because we didn't want to expose ourselves too much. Mind you, this wasn't a message from Paulo Bento, but something the players discussed among themselves. I remember that after it was 3-0, we actually had a conversation on the pitch like, 'Let's try not to concede any more.' Unfortunately, it didn't work out and it was even worse than the first game," he recalled.

Even so, Pedro Silva said he understood the outrage the result caused among the fans: "I remember that when we went to thank the fans for their support at the end of the game, some told us to go back, not to go over and thank them. We understood the frustration, especially since they had gone all the way to Germany just to support us. Inside the locker room, the atmosphere was desperate, it was the biggest thrashing I ever suffered. It was the worst moment of my sporting career and it's something that stays with you, it was unacceptable. When I go to Portugal, people still approach me because of that game."

The former player recalled that the team was poorly received at the next game: "After that tie, we had two or three team meetings to try to understand what had happened and everyone owned up to their mistakes. When we arrived, there were fans at the entrance to the training center. There was no violence of any kind and I think that criticism was totally valid. The management and the press also criticized us, but we know that's normal. What we could do afterwards was work. I remember that, in the next game, when the starting eleven was announced, all the players were booed. If I were a fan, I would have done the same," he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.