In his banquet speech in Madrid, Bayern boss Jan-Christian Dreesen only spends a short time criticizing the referee, instead highlighting two players – and picking up on a Thomas Müller quote from 2012
In the quarter-final against Arsenal, Bayern deliberately stayed at The Landmark hotel in London, where the party was held after the Champions League triumph in 2013. Jan-Christian Dreesen said in his banquet speech after the first leg at the Emirates Stadium at the beginning of April that they wanted to “revive this spirit”.
It has been clear since Wednesday evening that the Munich team will not be returning for this year’s final. Instead, Dreesen had to give his “most difficult” speech to date in Madrid after the semi-final exit (1:2). “Our dream was to crown an exceptionally good Champions League season so far with a final – a German final – at Wembley. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage that today,” said the CEO, speaking of a “very painful defeat.”
Unlike his predecessor Karl-Heinz Rummenigge at the same venue seven years ago, Dreesen only briefly criticized referee Szymon Marciniak, who had denied Bayern the chance to draw 2-2 and thus force extra time with a premature whistle shortly before the end. “We don’t want to be a bad loser today, but this decision simply feels wrong and that’s why it’s all the more bitter today,” said Dreesen, simply congratulating Real and BVB on reaching the final.
With Manuel Neuer, who had “kept Bayern in the game for 85 minutes with incredible saves” before his tragic slip-up, and joker Alphonso Davies, who had scored the interim lead with his weaker right foot (“We rarely have that either”), Dreesen preferred to highlight two players – and then came to talk about Thomas Müller.
Dreesen invokes the “Mia-san-mia reflex “
In 2012, the FCB veteran “wrote in the team chat the day after that bad defeat in the ‘Final dahoam’: ‘Cheer up, boys, what happened yesterday hurts extremely, but we’ll fight back next year’,” Dreesen revealed. “That’s what I want to say to you today too.”
The Bayern boss called it the “Mia-san-mia reflex”: “We have gone through such troughs and deep ditches in the past, and that is what characterizes the FC Bayern family: that we come back stronger than before after bitter defeats like today.” And so Dreesen has already set his sights on the Champions League final after next, which will take place in Munich in 2025: “That is now our big goal. “
