Joshua Kimmich: 'We're very confident at the moment' | OneFootball

Finally back in the semi-finals of the cup! FC Bayern secured their passage into the final four for the first time in six years on Wednesday night courtesy of a 2-0 win over RB Leipzig. Afterwards, there was great joy in the camp of the Bundesliga leaders. “We stayed calm and steady today,” praised coach Vincent Kompany. His captain Manuel Neuer hailed the attitude in the second half, where they “really played maturely until the end”. 

Meanwhile, Jonathan Tah was already looking ahead. “It would be special to get to Berlin. That’s our very clear aim.” fcbayern.com rounds up the rest of the post-match reaction for you.

Reaction to the cup match against RB Leipzig

Herbert Hainer (president): “We have the big dream of going to Berlin again, like in 2020. It was a deserved win today. Particularly in the second half, we were the better side. Leipzig are good opponents, no doubt about that, but credit to our team for how they played and converted the superiority into goals. We hardly gave anything away – virtually no goalscoring opportunities. So, overall a deserved win and a good performance.”

Max Eberl (board member for sport): “We’re still in all three competitions – of that we’re very proud. RB were much more dominant in the first half in Leipzig than they were tonight. After the first 20 minutes, we got a better grip and then had some good chances. It was evenly balanced at times but you felt our dominance. The second half was then classic knockout football: stay calm, create chances, let a few of them slip and carry on. Then we get the penalty, 1-0, 2-0 and see it through cleanly to the end. That’s how you win knockout games.”

Vincent Kompany: “We were very solid, although we could’ve scored more goals. We had enough chances for one or two more. Overall we created a lot of good chances. Obviously we’re pleased with the 2-0 win – and now we’re in the semi-finals. There have certainly been matches where we’ve been more clinical, but we stayed calm and steady today, didn’t do anything silly and just kept waiting for that moment. Then it came, and we used it well. I never had any doubt. Everyone’s fit and that could be a big help for us in March and April.”

Manuel Neuer: “We had a clear plan because we knew that we’d get chances the longer the game went on and the longer we put Leipzig under pressure, especially in the second half. It was certainly important that we kept a clean sheet. There are always situations, particularly from set pieces or headers, that can be dangerous. We weathered them and I think we really played maturely until the end.”

Jonathan Tah: “It was a good game of football. Leipzig certainly did well. They bring real intensity and ask questions of us. But we notice it time and again – we’ve played against them three times now – that there’s a moment in the match when the momentum tips in our favour. It would obviously be special to get to Berlin. That’s our very clear aim, to be there and also to lift the trophy at the end. That’s what we’ve set out to do. Today you saw how hungry we are for it.”

Joshua Kimmich: “We didn’t have enough control in the first 20 minutes and Leipzig were a threat. We made too many mistakes in possession and it was too easy to press us. We got on top of it after that. The second half was assured, we gave little away, were dangerous going forward and then put the game to bed. The most important thing today was that we hardly allowed any chances at the end and kept them away from goal. Of course we’d like to be at home in the semi-finals. It’s clear we want to get to Berlin. We’re very confident at the moment.”

Reaction from Leipzig

Oliver Mintzlaff (supervisory board chairman): “Congratulations to Bayern on reaching the semi-finals. It was a decent performance from us. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy here. We had the chance to take the lead in the first half – although Bayern also had chances. We now need to produce these kinds of performances in the Bundesliga. We want to get into the Champions League.”

Ole Werner (coach): “We needed to be a bit more precise in our good attacking moves. As well as that, a few little things didn’t go our way today. I think Bayern deserved to win in the end because they had the clearer opportunities and exploited their spaces well. The main thing we lacked was taking the lead ourselves in a good spell. Then it might have been a different story.

David Raum (captain): “It was a hard day for me. The luck wasn’t on our side. If you want to win here in Munich, a lot of things need to come together, everything has to be right and you also need a bit of luck. In the end there were two situations in which we maybe went to sleep a bit. Bayern are ruthless there. They’re just extremely efficient and then it’s tough to win here.”

The match report:

Bayern beat Leipzig to advance to semis