dpa
Berlin
Bayern Munich are solely focusing on getting a win against Benfica on Wednesday, and not thinking “too far ahead” about the automatic qualification for the last 16.
Bayern have two defeats and one win in three games so far, leaving them 23rd in the table. Under the new format, only teams sitting between first and eight qualify directly to the last 16, while teams between ninth and 24th have to play an extra play-off round.
“I don’t want to think too far ahead. We have to win against Benfica tomorrow, that’s our sole aim. I don’t want to think too much about the format. The crucial thing is: we want to win,” coach Vincent Kompany said in a news conference on Tuesday.
“You probably need to win six matches to finish in the top eight.
Three is probably enough for the play-offs. Of course, my objective is the top eight. We’ve won one match now, so it’s clear what we need in the remaining matches,” he added.
The Bavarians are coming off a shock defeat to Aston Villa and a big 4-0 loss to Barcelona, but Kompany stressed “we have a lot of confidence in our play.” “We’ll always adjust things a bit tactically. We just want to win at home. The mindset we’re communicating to the players is that we’re treating the match like a final, that we want to win every match,” he said.
