The tight-lipped FC Bayern players left the stadium in Freiburg on Saturday evening with their heads bent. The frustration was too deep after the late and above all avoidable 2-1 loss in the final away fixture against SC Freiburg. The struggling home team managed to leave the relegation zone for the first time since Matchday 29 with their first win over the record champions in 19 years.
“Freiburg wanted it more, they fought more to win,” commented Bayern coach Pep Guardiola at the post-match press conference. The Catalan was angry about the last-minute winner from Nils Petersen, who had only come on as a sub a short time before. The former FCB pro scored the 89th-minute winner with his third touch of the ball. “The equaliser was okay, but we can't lose the game in the last few minutes,” said Guardiola.
FCB with the better chances
Until Petersen's substitution FCB were closer to winning than the hosts in front of the 23,900 capacity crowd. In the lively and spirited early stages Bastian Schweinsteiger handed the visitors a 13th-minute lead. However, Bayern failed to turn their quality and dominance into more goals afterwards. Instead, SCF equalised against the run of play with Admir Mehmedi's long-range shot on 33 minutes.
“Until we scored the equaliser, it seemed only a matter of time before Bayern wrapped up the win,” Petersen admitted later. “You don’t have high expectations against Bayern, they had a fantastic line-up and there wasn't much rotation this time.” But after the equaliser, the striker continued, “we realised something was possible today.” In fact, FCB also had better chances in the second half, but Mario Götze (50), Schweinsteiger (69) and sub Thiago (85) did not make the most of them.
Boateng: We owe our fans a show
Just as a draw seemed the inevitable outcome, Petersen snatched an unlikely home win with Freiburg’s only shot of the second half. “We wanted to win the match today, but it was Freiburg who scored the second goal,” summarised Robert Lewandowski. “It's very annoying if you concede a goal so late in the game. That can’t be happening,” agreed Jérôme Boateng.
“We mustn’t allow that, we can't throw away a draw right at the end. We have to pull ourselves together. It's a pity for our fans too, their support was fantastic. We just have to play better football than we did today. We have to apologise to our fans for that,” Boateng continued.
“Luck was on our side today,” acknowledged Freiburg coach Christian Streich. Felix Klaus felt FCB’s punishing schedule of 13 matches in the last six weeks was a crucial factor: “They're exhausted, that's it. It would be nonsense to make a big thing out of it.” The season finally ends for the men from Munich with the last-day fixture against Mainz next weekend. “We want to put on a show for our home crowd,” concluded Boateng. “We owe that to our fans.”