Bayern Munich played well overall in their 1-0 Champions League loss
at Atletico Madrid but were punished for a sluggish start, said boss
Pep Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola felt Bayern Munich
contributed to their own downfall in Wednesday's 1-0 Champions League
semi-final first-leg loss to Bayern Munich.
Saul
Niguez scored a stunning solo goal after 11 minutes to settle the match,
with David Alaba's long-range shot against the crossbar the closest
Bayern came to levelling matters for next week's second leg at the
Allianz Arena.
Guardiola, who will leave the
Bundesliga champions to coach Manchester City next season and feels his
Bayern tenure may be defined by this Champions League campaign, made the
bold call to leave star man Thomas Muller among the substitutes
alongside Franck Ribery.
But he felt his team were
well briefed to deal with the tenacious threat of Atletico, which
overwhelmed them for large parts of the first half.
"We have talked about the very strong first minutes of Atletico before," he said.
"That's
not a great result for us. It's always unpleasant when you fail to
score in the away game. But we still have 90 minutes ahead."
The
former Barcelona boss was satisfied with the overall quality of
Bayern's play, but rued the slack defending that allowed Saul to net in
thrilling style.
"We played really well and had enough chances to score," he said. "I'm satisfied with our performance.
"In
the second leg we have to play very intelligent, we need patience. And
we only need one goal to reach the extra time at least."
Speaking to beIN Sports, Guardiola added: "Saul's goal is a great goal, he's a fantastic player. It is a result of our mistakes
"It was a good game overall, but we started badly. The goal was a consequence of our slow play."
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