Champions League is now in the finals stage hence no qualifier is willing to miss any game for any shoddy reason and last Bayern Munich vs. Benfica first leg quarterfinal meeting was one such game where Germen leader had to face a tough resistance from their Portuguese opponents. Although, Allianz Arena side won the game by a narrow 1-0 margin on the board, thanks to second-minute goal by Chile international Arturo Vidal, but it was more a defeat to the Bayern manager Pep Guardiola who was very optimistic for a dominating win before the game. Now, after going through the depth in Estádio da Luz side, 45-year-old Spanish does not want to take any risk hence tiding his shoe for the second leg showdown in Lisbon next week. If we look at this game, though Bayern were more attacking but they were missing target consistently, or you can call it a better defense from the visitors that defused around fifteen attempts by the hosts. Moreover, it is more a failure of Rui Vitória whose men could not shred off the early lead otherwise they would have been in much better position for second leg game at home.
Talking about the game and how they missed several opportunities in the last twenty minutes, Guardiola said in his post-match news conference, “I am very pleased with our performance tonight except for the last 20 minutes in the first half. In Champions League the second leg makes the difference. We now know Benfica better than before the game. Another result would have been better, true. But you can also suffer a defeat here. In Munich, if you don’t win by many goals it’s not good.
“The favourite is whoever plays best in Lisbon and scored the most goals.” Morover he as well praised his only soccer Vidal and said, “He’s done a good job in the last few months. He’s got a lot of experience. His goal was very important for us.”
Taking a strong note over the performance of Portuguese side and why they are the tough opponents on European circuit, he added, “I understand if people underestimate Benfica. They can’t catch the Portuguese league here. But I saw a lot of games, and I was very, very impressed. We had enough chances tonight. We will fly to Lisbon to win. I have trust in my team. We tried to score the second or the third goal, we created chances, but tonight we wasted too many.”