05 April 2023 , 11:59
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Thomas Tuchel's hopes of delivering the treble at Bayern Munich are already over - less than a fortnight after he was unveiled.
The former Chelsea boss made it clear upon his unveiling that he wanted to win all three trophies available to the Bavarians, but the best he can now manage is the double after a shock defeat in the German Cup. Bayern were beaten 2-1 by Freiburg on Tuesday night.
Their opponents bagged a 95th minute penalty to dumped them out at the Allianz Arena. It means Tuchel's focus is now on the Bundesliga and the Champions League with the club looking to justify their surprise decision to axe Julian Nagelsmann after less than two years in the job.
Tuchel bemoaned the nature of the defeat as he told Das Erste : “Freiburg scored two goals from two shots. I can’t remember another chance for them. We had good moments but always missed something, the last pass, the right decision, precision. They defended very deep and we couldn’t keep putting pressure on them.
“We took the lead then had two-or-three big chances, especially the one with Thomas (Müller). In the end we only have ourselves to blame. Being eliminated from the quarterfinals at home, of course it’s a huge disappointment.”
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Centre-half Matthijs de Ligt was equally downbeat, insisting that they weren't up to standard with a very winnable trophy now beyond them for another season. He said: “Today, we weren’t good enough. We didn’t create many chances. If you don’t score, you’ll always concede.
Thomas Tuchel's treble hopes have ended in his second game"Bitter to concede a goal like that at the last minute. It’s a pity, I think we always have to play for all titles at Bayern, but we have to look ahead. We have to play much better in Freiburg on Saturday. Today we didn’t have the feeling that we wanted to win the duels. Not everything was at 100% today. That’s why we lost.”
The loss was only Tuchel's second game in charge having made his bow against former club and title rivals Borussia Dortmund. Bayern had made quite the statement as they leapfrogged their opponents into top spot at the weekend, winning 4-2 with three of their goals coming in the opening half hour.
Tuchel has a proven record of taking over mid-season and winning the Champions League having done so at Chelsea. Bayern are hoping he can repeat the trick with Manchester City lying in wait in the quarter-finals before a likely semi-final against Real Madrid.
Last term on the European stage Bayern, then led by Nagelsmann, were shocked by Villarreal in the last eight. This term they've won all eight of their Champions League games, scoring 21 times and conceding just twice.