Cape Town - Jupp
Heynckes may have seen his Bayern Munich side lose at home for the
first time in a long time on Wednesday, but he wasn't disheartened by their display.
The veteran coach watched as his charges went down to a 2-1 defeat at the Allianz Arena in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, their sixth consecutive loss to the Spaniards.
Still, the 72-year old said he saw enough to give him hope that the German champions can turn it around in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu next week.
“Tonight’s match showed that Real Madrid are vulnerable, that they can be harmed,” Heynckes said. “We showed that we can hurt them, so we take hope from this. You should never surrender, never give up. You should play the second leg and try to win, and that is what we will do.”
Bayern Munich took the lead through Joshua Kimmich and should have doubled their lead when the excellent Franck Ribéry fluffed a clear chance with a poor touch, before goals from Marcelo and substitute sealed a somewhat fortunate win for the defending champions.
Heynckes said that Marcelo’s strike just before half-time was the “turning point”.
"It was a gift, just like the 2-1 was a gift,” Heynckes said. "You don’t often see a game like this in the Champions League where you have so many chances and you don’t take them. It doesn’t happen often at all.
"It’s also not usual for Madrid to allow so many chances, but we weren’t able to take them. We didn’t take our chances and they were more effective. Those two things came together. We handed out presents.”
"Anyone who knows me knows what I think and my players think the same way, we will give our all in the second leg to make up for the result in the first leg," he added.
"We saw tonight that we can create opportunities against them and it is our duty to do that next week. There are two matches, and the result comes from both. Real have an advantage, but we didn’t deserve to lose this match, we should have won it, so I’m optimistic about next week."