Preview: Bayern Munich - Olympique Marseille

This evening (8.45 pm) Bayern Munich will meet Olympique Marseille in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. Marseille is without two of their best players. Keeper Steve Mandanda is suspended, and centre back Souleymane Diawara is out for two reasons: the Senegal star is banned, and he is also injured since the last weekend. He also definitely misses next week's return in Munich. Heynckes picks from a full squad with the exception of Van Buyten and Breno. Bastian Schweinsteiger, sidelined of late with a foot problem, will claim a place in the squad.

Probable lineup

Elinton Andrade - Azpilicueta, Fanni, Nkoulou, Morel - A. Diarra, Mbia - Amalfitano, Valbuena, A. Ayew - Remy Coach: Deschamps   Neuer - Lahm, Boateng, Badstuber, Alaba - Luiz Gustavo, Kroos - Robben, T. Müller, Ribery - Gomez Coach: Heynckes

Reaction to Bayern's semi-final victory

Bayern Munich will meet Borussia Dortmund in the final in Berlin on May 12th after their 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory against Borussia M'Gladbach in wednesday's DFB Cup semi-final.
The star of the game was Manuel Neuer with an outstanding save from Reus and then he stopped the decisive penalty.

Reaction to the semi-final triumph:

  Manuel Neuer: “I'd rather we’d have won the match before getting to penalties, because it's just a lottery once you're there. We can be delighted we have such good penalty takers. Speaking for myself and the team as a whole, we were utterly determined to get through today. We wanted to go to Berlin for the final, and we’re there."

Franck Ribéry: “It wasn't easy. Naturally, our aim was to win it in the 90 minutes, but Gladbach are a good team. I think we played very well today. We were always focused, because we wanted to make the final in Berlin. We had three good chances to open the scoring in the first half. I'm delighted for Manuel Neuer.”

David Alaba: “We had our chances, but the ball just didn't want to go in during the 120 minutes. The coach asked me if I’d take a penalty, and I didn't hesitate for a second. I wanted to be the first penalty taker, and fortunately, it went in. I didn't think much about it, I'm just totally delighted it's worked out and we’re through– fantastic! We deserve it, because we're working very hard at the moment."

Seven goal gala

Bayern 7
Basel 0

That's the result of the amazing match by Bayern Munich on tuesday night. After their biggest-ever win in European competition, Munich will play in the Champions League quarter finals. The whole team had a great performance especially the already at the weekend phenomal playing Gomez (4 goals), Ribéry (3 assists) and Robben (2 goals, 1 assist).

match stats

Bayern Munich - FC Basel 7-0 (HT: 3-0)
Bayern Munich	Neuer - Lahm, Boateng, Badstuber, Alaba - Luiz Gustavo, Kroos - Robben (Tymoshchuk 82), Müller (Schweinsteiger 70), Ribéry (Pranjic 79) - Gomez
Substitutes:	Butt, Contento, Petersen, Olic
FC Basel	Sommer - Steinhöfer (Degen 70), Abraham, Dragovic, Park - Shaqiri (Zoua 80), Cabral, Xhaka, F. Frei (Stocker 62) - A. Frei, Streller
Referee:	Mark Clattenburg (England)
Spectators	66,000 (capacity)
Goals:	1-0 Robben (10, Kroos), 2-0 Müller (42, Robben), 3-0 Gomez (44, Badstuber), 4-0 Gomez (50, Ribéry), 5-0 Gomez (61, Ribéry), 6-0 Gomez(67, Ribéry), 7-0 Robben (81, Schweinsteiger)
Yellow Cards:	Boateng / Streller, Cabral

Bayern vs Hoffenheim: A joy to watch

Here are the official statements to Bayern Munich vs 1899 Hoffenheim (7-1).

Jupp Heynckes: “Overall, it was a classy performance. The way we made our goals was straight out of the textbook. It was a joy to watch. We built up a real head of steam. By contrast with the match in Leverkusen, we made the most of our chances today. If we’d done the same thing there, we’d have won. We were totally focused today, and we closed down the space, fought for possession, and played really good football too. It was good for Schweinsteiger, Olic and Tymoschuk to get playing time. The group was hungry and played as a unit. I really enjoyed it.”

Philipp Lahm: “With that result, you’ll obviously say it was a great game. We took an early lead and ruthlessly converted our chances. It was 5-0 at half-time and the game was over. The important thing was taking the lead. It makes opponents realise they’re in for a hard time. And if you follow up the opening goal, it takes care of itself. We’ll fight for the title right to the end.”

Arjen Robben: “We really enjoyed ourselves today. That’s how it always has to be, and that’s how we should carry on. We should never be playing any differently from that. A win like that boosts your confidence. In terms of the title, we’ll have to wait and see. All we can do is win our matches. We can’t do any more than that.”

All in all we saw a really great and remarkable game by Munich. With this performance there are good odds to reach the quarter-final against FC Basel on tuesday.

The decision - next reversal for Bayern Munich

The men from Munich were punished for missing a string of early openings as Bayer ruthlessly twice struck late in the game. In Leverkusen Munich couldn't stop their weakness in external stadiums. Only 2 points in the last 4 away games, a very bad statistic. It seems that the championship in the Bundesliga is already over for Munich because they're already 7 points below Borussia Dortmund.

I hope the team will show a reaction next week in the Allianz Arena against 1899 Hoffenheim and a few days later in the maybe most important game against FC Basel.