Heynckes happy as disciplined Bayern keep Treble dream alive
Jupp Heynckes expressed his delight at Bayern Munich's ability to keep their composure despite a frustrating 0-0 draw against 10-man Sevilla as they qualified for the Champions League semi-finals.
Bayern progressed to the last four yesterday morning (Singapore time) for the seventh time in nine seasons, prevailing 2-1 on aggregate following their first-leg victory in Spain last week.
Heynckes was pleased his side ground out the result despite their inability to breach a determined Sevilla defence.
"You can't always play brilliantly and put the opponents to the wall, sometimes you have to just keep them scoreless," he said.
"They hit the bar, which didn't let us rest, but we didn't get nervous."
Heynckes also praised the discipline exhibited by his players as Robert Lewandowski, Franck Ribery, Jerome Boateng and Joshua Kimmich, had been a yellow card away from suspension, but the quartet emerged unscathed.
"We kept our discipline and we didn't pick up any yellow cards, even though four players were in danger of being suspended, which was important," he said.
After Barcelona and Manchester City - the runaway leaders in Spain and England respectively - crashed out on Tuesday, Bayern are the only team left in Europe who can still win the Treble.
They wrapped up a sixth straight Bundesliga title last Saturday and are into the semi-finals of the German Cup.
Liverpool, defending champions Real Madrid and AS Roma, who knocked out Barcelona, are also in today's draw for the semi-finals, but Heynckes has no preference.
"You saw yesterday in Manchester and Rome that we can't underestimate any team - all the three other teams are at the top level," he said.
"Of course, we are ambitious and we want to reach the final, but we have two hard games ahead of us, whoever we get.
"You saw that Barcelona clearly thought the job was done before they played Roma, so I have no preference." - AFP
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