UCL 2022: Bayern relieved to avoid heavier first-leg defeat against Villarreal

Bayern Munich’s disappointment at their Champions League loss to Villarreal was tempered by a sense of relief that they escaped with just a 1-0 defeat in Wednesday’s quarter-final first leg.

Villarreal stunned six times European Cup winners Bayern with a deserved win after creating a hatful of chances in a frantic match, going toe to toe with the German giants.

“We deserved to lose. We weren’t good today.”Julian NagelsmannBayern Munch, Manager

“We’ll take the 1-0 result,” Bayern forward Thomas Mueller told DAZN.

“We know that things could have gone a lot worse. We have to pay a lot of respects to our opponents. Now we need to pick ourselves back up for the return leg and hit them back.”

It was Bayern’s first Champions League defeat away from home since 2017.

“We weren’t in it at all in the first half,” midfielder Joshua Kimmich told reporters.

“In the second, we risked more but then things got quite wild. We have to be honest and say that we’ve done well to come away with just 1-0.”

Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann had said on Tuesday that it was “only logical” to think they were the favourites for the tie and he was critical of his team after the defeat.

“We deserved to lose. We weren’t good today,” Nagelsmann told DAZN.

“In the first half, we lacked power in defence and didn’t create chances. The second half was a completely wild game. We gave up control because we were desperate to score, but we could have conceded at least two more.”

In the end, there was just one goal between the teams after Nigerian-born Dutch forward Arnaut Danjuma’s eighth-minute strike gave Unai Emery’s side a slender lead for the second leg at the Allianz Arena in Munich next Tuesday.

Villarreal’s players were keeping their feet on the ground.

“In Germany, it will be a different game, but the tie is still open,” man-of-the-Match Giovani Lo Celso told Movistar Plus.

“While it will not be easy next week I think that if we are totally concentrated in the second match we’ll have our possibilities to go through.”