Manchester City “brutally punished” Bayern Munich, but coach Thomas Tuchel enjoyed his side’s losing effort nonetheless.
Thomas Tuchel “fell in love” with Bayern Munich in a damaging 3-0 defeat to Manchester City he described as “a lot of fun” on Tuesday.
Bayern’s hopes of reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals are in tatters after one-sided scores in their last eight games in Manchester.
City were no doubt deserved winners, Opta tallied four big chances to Bayern’s one.
But the Bundesliga giants had 56 per cent of possession as City were forced to play without the ball; only four times under Pep Guardiola have they seen less of the game.
That may have been the source of Tuchel’s optimism at the time, as the man who guided Chelsea to a final victory over City in 2021 reveled in a loss that is likely to cost his new team.
“I don’t agree with the result at all,” he told Prime Video. “We were punished in phases where we were the better team. We were just brutally punished today.”
“Up to 2-0 I thought our performance was very good. I don’t want to discuss the result, I saw a very good performance until the 70th minute.
“I think we deserved at least one goal and we gave away one or two too many. I think our players lacked a bit of confidence and form. The result is bitter for us of course.
“I kind of fell in love with my team today, the way they played. As weird as it sounds, it was a lot of fun.”
