Last Saturday, FC Bayern snatched the championship trophy from BVB in the last few meters and kept their own title series alive. Ex-professional Mario Basler was anything but impressed by the Munich performance in Cologne.
In the 2-1 win against Effzeh, coach Thomas Tuchel’s team got off to a great start and were rewarded with an early goal from Kingsley Coman, but then let the reins slip.
This sloppiness drove Mario Basler up the wall. The 54-year-old rumbled in his podcast “Basler ballert” that he had seen FC Bayern’s “sleeping car football” and added: “The style of play really gets on my nerves.”
According to Basler, the fact that the record champions hardly tried to use the momentum and add more after the 1-0 was “totally upset”. The interim equalization by Dejan Ljubicic’s hand penalty was only the logical consequence.
The former midfield director attested FC Bayern a “cruel game” and also made it clear that he was “completely dissatisfied” with how the team “sold”.
Basler’s unflattering verdict: “Bayern gave everything this year for Borussia Dortmund to become champions again.”
Tough criticism of BVB captain Reus and Haller
But as is well known, BVB lost their nerve in the home game against Mainz 05. A 2-2 draw destroyed all black and yellow dreams.
Basler identified two Dortmund professionals as the faces of the debacle: Sebastien Haller and Marco Reus. He accused the former of “completely selfish thinking”, after all, Emre Can was scheduled to take the penalty.
However, Haller called for the ball before the penalty kick and subsequently failed at the guest keeper. This was the “neck” for the home side, explained Basler.
About Reus, who remained pale after being substituted on, he said: “I can’t understand the performance of the so-called ‘captain’ and I don’t understand that he was extended for another year.”