On Saturday, FC Bayern and VfB Stuttgart meet in the DFB Cup final. Before the game, both coaches treated each other with respect and made the importance of the possible title clear.
It’s been six years since Bayern were last able to lift the trophy. Kompany therefore recognizes a certain longing among his team:
“I’ve never taken part in a German Cup final, but I’ve taken part in other finals. I won my first FA Cup when Man City hadn’t won it for 40 years,” Kompany said at the press conference before the final.
“Winning here is always a historic moment. Stuttgart achieved that last year. This season, the whole team has been talking about this trophy since day one. This shows that FC Bayern Munich holds this trophy in high esteem. We want to bring it back to Munich.”
To do this, Kompany and his team have to get past the Swabians, who go into the final as defending champions but are no strangers to the Bayern coach. If you play Stuttgart five times, five times against the same coach, then of course you know your opponent very well,” explained Kompany.
“In the end, there are moments when you believe that if you keep going like this, you can be successful. But you also see moments when they can hurt us. We just want to be present in the game tomorrow and have full confidence that we can do it. We also know how difficult it is to play against this opponent,” the coach warned about the opponent.
Kompany is currently not interested in the fact that the season would only bring one title in the event of a possible defeat.
“We don’t evaluate a season the day before a final. Now we have to write our story for this game. We have to put on our shoes tomorrow and play the game. Everything else is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter for my motivation. I really want to win tomorrow, that’s the only thing that matters now, not the analysis of the season.”
Hoeneß with great respect for FC Bayern
Of course, VfB Stuttgart also wants to win. However, people in the country are aware that the caliber of the opponent in this year’s final will be different.
“We will need an extraordinary performance. That is our goal. We need what you always need against Bayern. We have an appetite for it (…) We have the best possible opponent, we are playing against one of the best teams in Europe.”
For the Swabians’ coach, the final against Bayern is not a normal game anyway due to his connection and past with the Munich team: “My history with the club probably makes it a little special. But we are playing against a team that has dominated the game in an impressive way over the last few decades. It is a special incentive – a lot of things are coming together – and I’m really looking forward to it.”