Despite the 0:1 in Rome, Jan-Christian Dreesen still believes Bayern will progress “confidently” in the Champions League. During his banquet speech, the board boss also boosted Dayot Upamecano
Jan-Christian Dreesen experienced a premiere in Rome on Wednesday evening that he would have liked to put off for a little longer. For the first time, the CEO had to give a banquet speech after a Champions League match that FC Bayern had not won. After the 1-0 defeat at Lazio Roma, the Munich team is even facing elimination in the round of 16 for the first time since 2019.
“We certainly imagined things a little differently today, much more cheerfully,” admitted Dreesen at Bayern’s hotel. “But these are days you have to learn to deal with. We started with a lot more commitment in the first half and also showed a certain reaction after our really difficult game in Leverkusen. But then the Romans bought our nerve in the second half. And there’s nothing to gloss over. We had imagined it differently.”
The “blatant drop in performance”, which coach Thomas Tuchel had also observed, culminated in Dayot Upamecano’s red foul, which gave Lazio the winning goal and a superior number. Dreesen called the center-back’s tackle “very unfortunate” and commented on the sending-off: “You can give it like that, maybe you don’t have to give it like that.” The club boss called it “disgusting” and “despicable” that Upamecano was subjected to massive racist abuse on social media afterwards. He therefore demonstratively asked “for a round of applause for our Upamecano.”
Dreesen’s greeting to Rummenigge and Hoeneß
Dreesen still sees every chance in the second leg, which the Frenchman will miss due to suspension, despite the defeat. He recalled “two colleagues with whom I had the pleasure of making many such trips and fortunately very rarely had to digest such results”: former bosses Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeneß. “They always said when we lost 1-0 away from home: That’s a result you can live with – you can still win at home. That’s the message we have to take with us today.”
Dreesen is certain that the team has the quality and the will to win the second clash with Lazio on March 5 “with our 75,000 fans behind them and progress to the next round.”
