Vincent Kompany saluted Bayern Munich’s composure and ignored the “loopy” ambiance at Celtic to grab management of the Champions League play-off spherical with a 2-1 win within the first leg on Wednesday. Bayern boss Kompany was involved concerning the potential for Celtic to be fuelled by the raucous 60,000 sell-out crowd in Glasgow. But the Bundesliga leaders produced a mature show that took the sting out of the Celtic roar for lengthy durations. Michael Olise’s thunderous drive into the roof of the web from 15 yards put Bayern forward on the stroke of half-time.
England captain Harry Kane doubled Bayern’s lead with a close-range volley from Joshua Kimmich’s nook 4 minutes after the interval.
At that time Bayern have been in full command, however they eased off within the closing levels and Daizen Maeda’s 79th minute header gave Celtic a glimmer of hope.
Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer needed to make a very good save from Alistair Johnston to make sure the guests held onto their lead in a frantic finale.
Kompany was relieved to listen to the ultimate whistle, however insisted he was delighted with the way in which Bayern inflicted Celtic’s first dwelling defeat in 33 video games in all competitions.
“It’s cliche to say, nevertheless it’s the primary half of the sport. Overall, it is a actually nice end result,” he mentioned.
“I do know this place, I do know it transcends efficiency typically. We dealt rather well with the ambiance for lengthy spells earlier than it may go too loopy.
“The final 10 minutes we needed to defend and we did that effectively. Of course, you possibly can really feel in these moments, if the sport comes alive it’s a particular place.
“The followers have not seen many losses right here, particularly in Europe, so we respect the significance of the sport and the victory.”
‘One extra shot’
Bayern will likely be favourites to advance to the final 16 when Celtic go to Munich for the second leg on February 18.
But earlier than then, Kompany’s males face an important conflict on Saturday with champions Bayer Leverkusen, who’re eight factors behind Bayern within the title race.
“We’re additionally fairly first rate at dwelling so we’ll look to play on that as effectively,” Kompany mentioned.
“We have an vital sport on Saturday, so we’ll swap our focus to that.”
Celtic supervisor Brendan Rodgers took coronary heart from the way in which his facet recovered from their ultra-cautious begin.
Rodgers is assured the Scottish Premiership leaders can rattle Bayern within the return as they appear to achieve the final 16 for the primary time since 2012-13.
“At 2-1, Bayern Munich are hanging on. That’s what we are able to take from it. We’ve acquired yet another shot,” Rodgers mentioned.
“It’s a brand new stage for lots of the gamers, they’ve performed completely nice. Let’s go and don’t have any regrets and see the place it takes us.
“By the top, Bayern are glad for the ultimate whistle. We’ve proven we are able to play soccer and be a menace. We’re nonetheless proper within the tie.”
Celtic handled Bayern with an excessive amount of respect within the first half, sitting deep for lengthy spells moderately than taking the combat to their star-studded opponents.
Rodgers admitted it was solely when Celtic went two objectives behind that they lastly threw warning to the wind.
“The final 25 minutes, we began to press the sport and also you see what it introduced — aggression. Our soccer begins to come back alive after which we get the objective,” he mentioned.
“With Bayern’s high quality and the variety of objectives they’ll rating, typically these will be out of sight however that wasn’t the case in any respect.
“We have been all the time going to be the underdog. But what must not ever occur is, it’s essential to by no means be damaged. We saved preventing and acquired a reward for that.”
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