All hope is not lost a Bayern Munich as they’re still well poised to go on and lift their eleventh consecutive Meisterschale, but Borussia Dortmund is doing their part to keep piling on the pressure on the Rekordmeister. It’s still only a single point that separates the two sides, but for Bayern fans, getting knocked out of both the DFB-Pokal and Champions League in such close proximity to one another will leave a sour taste of disappoint even if they hang on and beat out Dortmund to the Bundesliga title once again.
The managerial switch from Julian Nagelsmann to Thomas Tuchel also coincided with a rather poor run from Bayern in and around getting knocked out of both cup competitions, which made the decision from Bayern’s board and front office an even more bitter pill to swallow. The decision, matched with Bayern’s poor run of form, did not mesh well for optics from the fans’ perspective and the timing of the decision was laregly ridiculed, so much to the point where the futures of both Oliver Kahn (CEO) and Hasan Salihamidzic (sporting director) are both in question this summer.
Ahead of Bayern’s 2-1 win at Werder Bremen to keep them top of the table, Kahn was asked directly about the decision to sack Nagelsmann and bring in Tuchel and if it was something that he now looks back on with some level of regret. He wasn’t really interested in answering the question directly, and chose to sort of put it to the side in his personal assessment of how things have unfolded since the middle of March at Bayern.
“I think it makes relatively little sense to discuss the change of coach before such an important game. Of course we all would have liked to have gone through against Manchester City. It’s no shame now that you’re eliminated against a team like that.” Kahn explained. “Of course we would have liked to have progressed in the DFB Cup. It hurts when you have to watch the semifinals. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have total trust in Thomas Tuchel. Now we want to be German champions first and then we’ll attack all competitions again next season,” he continued (Tz).
It’s difficult to say whether or not Bayern would’ve suffered the same fate in the cups if the board had decided to stick with Nagelsmann until the end of the season, but the evidence on display against Paris Saint-Germain from the round of 16 would suggest different. Still, Manchester City have shown this season how they are one of the, if not the best team in Europe at the moment, having handedly dispatched of Bayern over the course of two legs in the quarter-finals after absolutely demolishing RB Leipzig over the course of two legs.