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Hitzfeld slams Bayern passion

9 December 2007 | 22:43 - PA Sport

Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld admitted his team showed a lack of precision and passion in the first half of Sunday's (AEDT) goalless draw at home to Duisburg.

 

The hosts had the majority of the chances to score but could not get past the Duisburg defence, which played the final 10 minutes a man down after Mohamadou Idrissou was red-carded.

The draw saw Bayern move onto 35 points and allowed them to open a two-point gap on Werder Bremen - who lost 4-3 at Hannover - but meant they have to wait until next weekend to make sure of being 'autumn' champions.

"Naturally, I'm disappointed with the result. We wanted to win and make sure of first place over Christmas. But it's our own fault. We found it very difficult, especially after we again failed to take our early chances," said Hitzfeld.

"Duisburg grew in confidence and solidity at the back. They defended well with nine men, we couldn't find any gaps, and we never found the spark to prise them open. At the end of the day we lacked precision - there were too many misplaced passes."

"I wasn't happy with the first half. We showed no passion, we wanted to win the game by playing pretty stuff. We were too static - there wasn't enough movement. Our body language gave off all the wrong signals."

Things picked up after the interval, but the breakthrough just did not come for Bayern.

"The second half was okay. We got up and at them in the second half. There was a lot more passion about us. We tried everything. We put them under a lot more pressure, much more action in the box but we failed to take our chances," Hitzfeld added on www.fcbayern.de.

"Duisburg deserved their point. We have to grit our teeth and wave goodbye to two points."

Duisburg have collected four points in the last two games after losing four straight contests previously but remain in the relegation zone in 16th place with 13 points. However, they are just one point from the safe zone.

Coach Rudi Bommer was full of admiration for his team after they secured a hard-fought draw at the Allianz Arena.

"I want to praise my team for the way they battled and worked after we went down to 10 men. We had nothing to lose - the pressure was all on Bayern," he said.

"We skilfully denied them space. We fought for every inch of ground throughout the match, and we counter-attacked well."

"We were very lucky in one or two situations, but you need that if you're going to take anything away from here. We were well worth our point."

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