The German forward thinks patience will be a virtue in Tuesday’s Champions League quarter-final decider and insists team morale is high
Thomas Muller has pleaded with his Bayern Munich team-mates not to be “kamikaze” in their attempt to beat Porto on Tuesday.
Defensive mistakes saw the Bavarians suffered a shock 3-1 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final in Portugal, leaving them on the brink of a European exit.
But Muller, who has played a part in Bayern’s three consecutive semi-final appearances in the competition, thinks patience is crucial and doesn’t think any sort of “miracle” is necessary to reach the next round.
“We have to play smart, and avoid kamikaze tactics,” the forward, 25, told reporters. “If at half-time it is still goalless, progress will still be possible. Of course we feel the pressure, but having a challenge is a good thing for us.
“It is important to stay focused and score at least twice. I am positive. Our team has shown during recently that we are capable of fighting until the last minute.
“I cannot tell you why we will go through, but I am still confident and quite sure that we will. A 2-0 win at home against Porto would not be a miracle, would it?
“It is not too easy to deal with a negative pressure. But I like it in another way – at the end of the day this is a game of football. We will discuss our tactics with our coach, some things in Porto did not work as we expected.”
Bayern bounced back from defeat to Porto last week by defeating Hoffenheim 2-0 on Saturday – a result which would see them past Nicolas Lopetegui’s men – and Muller insists morale within Pep Guardiola’s squad is fine.
“After every action there is a big reaction at Bayern and I like this,” the Germany international added. “We had some good moments as a team during the last week.
“The team spirit is very good, but I don’t know if this will have a big influence on our game tomorrow. There are so many things that influence a game, it is just impossible to completely plan a match.”
Bayern lost their chief of medical staff in the aftermath of their defeat to Porto after Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt quit due to perceiving Guardiola to have blamed his team for the injuries currently besetting the Bundesliga champions.