Before Arsenal trip, Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel at a loss to explain team’s latest collapse

HEIDENHEIM, Germany (AP) — Arsenal, take note.

Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel was unable to explain his team’s collapse against promoted Heidenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Bayern was leading 2-0 at the break after goals from Harry Kane and Serge Gnabry, then conceded three in the second half to lose 3-2 for its second consecutive Bundesliga defeat.

Tuchel, whose team next visits Arsenal for the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday, had no explanation.

“In the first 15 minutes of the second half, we gave away everything we had built up. Within the first minute, we actually completely stopped playing soccer and doing everything we’d done in the first half,” Tuchel said.

The Bayern coach said he warned his players during the interval that Heidenheim could change style and play with two forwards “because I would have done that,” and because Heidenheim had played like that before.

Kevin Sessa pulled one back for Heidenheim and Tim Kleindienst equalized a minute after that. Kleindienst scored the winner in the 79th for the promoted team’s first ever win over Bayern, which is 16 points behind Bundesliga leader Bayer Leverkusen with six rounds remaining.

“It is obviously extremely difficult for us to maintain the concentration level and the level of fight with which we had fully deserved to lead up to then,” Tuchel said of the team’s collapse. “Yes, that’s hard to explain. I can describe it to you. Explaining it is difficult.”

Arsenal is unbeaten in its last seven games and has won six of those.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.

Federal News Network Logo
Log in to your WTOP account for notifications and alerts customized for you.

Sign up