Ribery deserved goal as reward, says Kovac

Niko Kovac said "everything was on song" in Bayern Munich's 5-1 win over Benfica and he singled out veteran winger Franck Ribery for praise.

Published : Nov 28, 2018 10:29 IST

Bayern Munich head coach Nico Kovac (L) and winger Franck Ribery (R), scored Bayern Munich's fifth goal in a resounding victory against Benfica in the Champions League.
Bayern Munich head coach Nico Kovac (L) and winger Franck Ribery (R), scored Bayern Munich's fifth goal in a resounding victory against Benfica in the Champions League.
lightbox-info

Bayern Munich head coach Nico Kovac (L) and winger Franck Ribery (R), scored Bayern Munich's fifth goal in a resounding victory against Benfica in the Champions League.

Franck Ribery's first goal of the season was a deserved reward for his unselfish play this season according to Niko Kovac, who singled the Frenchman out for praise after his performance in Bayern Munich's 5-1 win against Benfica.

Ribery scored Bavarians' fifth goal in a resounding victory that confirmed Bayern Munich places in the last 16 of the Champions League, while Benfica's hopes of progressing from Group E were ended.

READ | Bayern Munich 5 Benfica 1: Robben & Lewandowski seal progression

On a night when Arjen Robben and Robert Lewandowski scored two goals each, Bayern head coach Kovac praised the contribution of 35-year-old winger Ribery in particular.

"He was finally able to reward himself," Kovac told reporters.

"Franck works very hard on the pitch and brings his team-mates into the game. Today he scored, and he earned that."

The German champion went into the game reeling from a 3-3 draw with Fortuna Dusseldorf that left it fifth in the Bundesliga, nine points behind league leader Borussia Dortmund. But Robben scored twice inside 30 minutes and there were no signs of nerves from the home side as it brushed its opponents aside.

Kovac summed up the performance, saying: "Everything was on song.

"We defended well and took our chances at the other end. We finally managed to maintain a high performance level throughout the full 90 minutes.

"It may sound strange, but when we play in the Champions League or in the big league games, you can see that my team is capable, but when we come up against the slightly smaller teams, we sometimes don't play to our full strengths.

"We need to play to our best for 90 minutes, as we did today."

Benfica head coach Rui Vitoria, whose side will drop into the Europa League following their final Group E match against AEK Athens, admitted his defence came up short against Bayern.

"We weren't good," he said, "We didn't implement our strategy well.

"A lot of that is due to Bayern, who were superior. They are one of the biggest teams in Europe.

"We needed to be more organised in defence and quicker in our attacks, but we didn't manage that."

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment