Salihamidzic: 'It's rare to see Bayern this bad'
"I rarely see anything like this," Salihamidzic said after the match on March 19. "We are inferior in every way. This is not Bayern."
Salihamidzic thinks that the most embarrassing thing of Bayern is playing underdogs against an opponent who has just returned from the second leg of the 1/8 Europa League round on March 16. In this match, Leverkusen beat Ferencvaros 2-0 in Hungary.
The Sports Director was also disappointed in the motivation, mentality and effectiveness of the duel. "Bayern play badly without the right mentality," admits Salihamidzic. "The players were overconfident when they thought they could do everything with their quality."
In the match on the evening of March 19, Bayern opened the scoring in the 22nd minute. However, Leverkusen came upstream at the beginning of the second half. Exequiel Palacios successfully kicked both penalties after two falls in the penalty area by teammate Amine Adli.
According to AS (Spain), one of the changes that helped Leverkusen win against Bayern was that coach Xabi Alonso let Robert Andrich play flexibly between the two positions of midfield and sweeping defender. This player is re-enacting the libero role that two legends Franz Beckenbauer and Lothar Matthaus used to be very successful with Bayern and Germany.
"We did a lot of analysis and thought about what we can do," said coach Alonso. "We know Bayern are very flexible in attack. That's why we wanted a flexible player who can play both as a defender and as a midfielder. Robert did a great job. He understood. How does that position play?"
Losing to Leverkusen caused Bayern to lose its top position in the Bundesliga. Bayern are second with 52 points after 25 matches, one point behind Dortmund.
In the next match on April 1, Bayern will take on Dortmund. This is an opportunity for the defending champion to regain what was lost. However, if they lose or draw, Bayern could face the risk of losing the Bundesliga for the first time since 2012.
"We all know how to read the scoreboard," midfielder Kimmich said. "We all saw the performance today. To win against Dortmund is an obligation."
In the first leg this season, Bayern drew 2-2 at Dortmund's field. After the 2022 World Cup break, Dortmund are unbeaten in the Bundesliga with nine wins and one draw. In the last match, the top team crushed Cologne 6-1.
Bayern still have a chance to win the treble this season. Besides the Bundesliga, they also met Freiburg in the quarter-finals of the German Cup and Man City in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. In the Champions League, Bayern won all eight matches from the beginning of the season against Barca, Inter, Viktoria Plzen and PSG.
Meanwhile, Dortmund has just left the Champions League. The black and yellow shirt team lost to Chelsea in the end 1-2 in the 1/8 round. Dortmund also met Leipzig in the quarter-finals of the German Cup.
