Thomas muller, together with his wife lisa and a white rabbit, conveyed the best easter wishes from the couch, robert lewandowski beamed in a more coarse round at the breakfast table.
The free easter sunday and more time for the family had bayern stars national defender niklas sule to thank, who kept the munchner in part one of the bremer double prufung with his 1-0 on championship course. Although borussia dortmund’s 4-0 win at SC freiburg did not put them out of the running, the prospects of winning the next cup are excellent.
"We still have the chance to go out of this year with two titles. We’ll definitely try to win this one, and then it can be a very, very good season," the 23-year-old said. Sule will be absent for episode two of the bavarian-hanseatic showdown in the cup semifinal on wednesday.
The 1.95-meter defensive giant scored in 162. Bundesliga match for only the eleventh time and had to smile a bit himself about the winning goal. "That was such a good shot," flattened sule, whose attempt from a distance was deflected unstoppably into his own goal by bremen’s davy klaassen. Sometimes a "dirty goal has to help". Curious is his munchner goal statistics. With his fourth league goal, he now has a positive balance sheet in view of three own goals.
The munich team was not very masterful before the break, playing one-way football against the bremen team after the yellow card for milos veljkovic (58).) decimated bremen in half two before. But against the outstanding goalkeeper jiri pavlenka, only sule’s goal stood out despite high-caliber chances. "But the 1:0 is also enough. We have three points and are happy that we can celebrate easter as table leaders," said coach niko kovac.
On their public holiday, the munich team could relax and watch rival dortmund and its away game in freiburg. "I find it much more pleasant when you go ahead than when you have to go behind. We passed on the pressure," said kovac. BVB withstood this and jerked to within a point of munchner. Kovac expects more exciting weeks in bundesliga title race. "There are still four games to go and it will remain tight until the last matchday. But if we win everything, we are through anyway."Nurnberg (A), hannover (H), leipzig (A) and frankfurt (H) are the remaining tasks of the bavarians.
The next thrill is for wednesday (20.45 o’clock/sky and ARD) programmed. "It’s going to be a cup fight, so you can be prepared for that," said sporting director hasan salihamidzic, looking ahead to the tough semi-final hurdle on the weser river. Then sule must watch after his red card in the quarterfinal against heidenheim, the munchner plan with the return of mats hummels after a thigh strain. "It will be a different game. We have to be prepared," warned kovac. "This will be a tight story."
Bremen tried to put the frustrating experience from the allianz arena behind them quickly. More than half an hour outnumbered against munich was "not worthy of amusement tax," noted coach florian kohfeldt after the first defeat of the calendar year. On saturday, FC bayern was "one size too big" in the home game. "But that does not have to be the case again on wednesday."
The players around claudio pizarro, who was cheered by both fan camps during his brief appearance, are eagerly awaiting the final game on 25 january. May in berlin. "Fortunately, we only have four days off and can show a reaction in the DFB cup," said captain max kruse, who scored one of bremer’s three goals. For comparison: statistics show 28 goals scored by bayern, with lewandowski scoring eight times alone. Whether kruse can play on wednesday, however, is open. "I just saw the stud marks on his thigh. It was all blue," said coach kohfeldt.