By Ian Traynor in Munich
GERMANS FIND DEFEAT HARD TO SWALLOW
By Ian Traynor in Munich
Stunned, tearful, and incredulous at the extraordinary Nou
Camp finale, the city of Munich and the fans of Bayern
Munich awoke yesterday from a bad Barcelona dream and
struggled to put the bitter scenes of the previous night
behind them.
"OH NO," was the banner headline in English spread across
the front page of the bestselling Bild tabloid, one of the
few German newspapers to hold their front and sports pages
late enough to get the match reports into yesterday's
editions.
"Simply unbelievable. Football can be so cruel," said Bild
beside a picture of the crestfallen Bayern midfielder Stefan
Effenberg.
Bayern fans who packed Munich's Olympic Stadium on Wednesday
night to watch the game on giant screens wept openly after
Manchester United's two substitutes dealt the lethal injury-
time blow.
Germany's greatest ever footballer, Franz Beckenbauer, who
is also the Bayern club president and the country's roving
World Cup ambassador, described the result as the "cruellest
defeat of my life. I've never experienced an unhappier
defeat."
He later sought to put things into perspective: "We haven't
lost a fight, we haven't lost a battle, we haven't lost a
life. We've lost a match."
Beckenbauer's former national team-mate who is now the most
eloquent football pundit in Germany, Günther Netzer, said:
"In all the time I've been watching football, I've never
seen anything so terrible. This will stay in the heads of
these players for ever."
Bayern have already secured the Bundesliga and go for the
German Double in the national cup final in Berlin in a
fortnight. But naturally they had their hearts set on the
Treble and none more so than Lothar Matthäus the veteran
libero, who was the only Bayern player in the 1987 European
Cup final lost to Porto, also by 2-1.
The Champions Cup is the sole medal missing from Matthäus's
impressive collection and at 38 he looks unlikely to get
another chance.
Although he was one of the few Bayern players to applaud
United as they received the trophy, he immediately tore off
his runner's-up medal and was inconsolable, according to
Ottmar Hitzfeld, the Bayern coach.
Hitzfeld, who won the European Cup with Borussia Dortmund
two years ago and looked set for a glorious first season in
Munich, said he felt drained, but remained gracious rather
than embittered. "Manchester deserved the victory just as
much as we did."
With four minutes to go on Wednesday night, the match
commentator on German television offered the following
verdict on decades of Anglo-German footballing rivalry: "Yet
again in the crucial game the English team has proven
inferior to the German team."
A few minutes later he was spluttering as Sheringham got the
equaliser, and 103 seconds later he was struck dumb
Camp finale, the city of Munich and the fans of Bayern
Munich awoke yesterday from a bad Barcelona dream and
struggled to put the bitter scenes of the previous night
behind them.
"OH NO," was the banner headline in English spread across
the front page of the bestselling Bild tabloid, one of the
few German newspapers to hold their front and sports pages
late enough to get the match reports into yesterday's
editions.
"Simply unbelievable. Football can be so cruel," said Bild
beside a picture of the crestfallen Bayern midfielder Stefan
Effenberg.
Bayern fans who packed Munich's Olympic Stadium on Wednesday
night to watch the game on giant screens wept openly after
Manchester United's two substitutes dealt the lethal injury-
time blow.
Germany's greatest ever footballer, Franz Beckenbauer, who
is also the Bayern club president and the country's roving
World Cup ambassador, described the result as the "cruellest
defeat of my life. I've never experienced an unhappier
defeat."
He later sought to put things into perspective: "We haven't
lost a fight, we haven't lost a battle, we haven't lost a
life. We've lost a match."
Beckenbauer's former national team-mate who is now the most
eloquent football pundit in Germany, Günther Netzer, said:
"In all the time I've been watching football, I've never
seen anything so terrible. This will stay in the heads of
these players for ever."
Bayern have already secured the Bundesliga and go for the
German Double in the national cup final in Berlin in a
fortnight. But naturally they had their hearts set on the
Treble and none more so than Lothar Matthäus the veteran
libero, who was the only Bayern player in the 1987 European
Cup final lost to Porto, also by 2-1.
The Champions Cup is the sole medal missing from Matthäus's
impressive collection and at 38 he looks unlikely to get
another chance.
Although he was one of the few Bayern players to applaud
United as they received the trophy, he immediately tore off
his runner's-up medal and was inconsolable, according to
Ottmar Hitzfeld, the Bayern coach.
Hitzfeld, who won the European Cup with Borussia Dortmund
two years ago and looked set for a glorious first season in
Munich, said he felt drained, but remained gracious rather
than embittered. "Manchester deserved the victory just as
much as we did."
With four minutes to go on Wednesday night, the match
commentator on German television offered the following
verdict on decades of Anglo-German footballing rivalry: "Yet
again in the crucial game the English team has proven
inferior to the German team."
A few minutes later he was spluttering as Sheringham got the
equaliser, and 103 seconds later he was struck dumb