Thomas Muller lauds ‘incredible’ Bayern Munich ‘statement’ in rampant Champions League win over Barcelona

The Bayern attack proved unstoppable for an error-strewn Barca defence

Thomas Muller played a key role as Bayern Munich absolutely hammered Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final—then immediately called for his team to improve to hit their actual objective.

An incredible 90 minutes saw the Bundesliga side emerge as 8-2 victors, with Muller netting two and further goals coming for Ivan Perisic, Serge Gnabry, Joshua Kimmich, Robert Lewandowski and a brace for Philippe Coutinho, in response to an early David Alaba own goal and Luis Suarez’s consolation.

Muller won the Man of the Match award on the night, but pointed to the strength of the Bayern squad by saying “12 or 15 other players” deserved to share it on the night.

“I think in this moment our team is in incredible shape,” he told BT Sport after full-time.

“We work so hard; with this intensity it’s hard for everyone to beat us. We had so much fun today. For our style of play it doesn’t matter what the names of the [opposition] players are.

“[Barcelona] have special players and so we have to be more aggressive and come back to situations again and again. When someone presses and gets dribbled past, the next guy comes in and the next.

“There’s a moment we catch the ball and there’s so much talent in the offensive line.”

Despite the annihilation of a genuine perceived rival for the competition, Muller says it’ll only get more difficult from this point on—and says the players must step up even more in response to achieve their overall aim.

“It was very special but we have to be quiet, regenerate. It’s a big statement but the next game starts 0-0. We have to win the next game as well to reach our big goal of the final.

“We are not here to win the quarter-final or the semis, we’re here to win the final. I know these tournament situations a lot and most of the time after these big wins it’s more difficult, so we have to be careful.”