Bayern Munich manager Julian Naglesmann has blasted Thomas Muller for his late miss after the German giants were knocked out the Champions League by Villarreal.
Unai Emery 's men stunned the Allianz Arena and snatched a late 1-1 draw which sent them through to the semi-finals on aggregate, having recorded a historic win last week in Spain. Talisman Robert Lewandowski scored to level to the tie on Tuesday night, as Bayern once again dominated possession, but Muller squandered a glorious opportunity to put the Bundesliga behemoths ahead on aggregate.
The legendary German forward somehow headed wide and post-match, Nagelsmann told Prime Video Deutschland: "Thomas has to score that, you don't get many of those." His miss allowed Villarreal to stay in the game and substitute Samuel Chukwueze to bag a late equalise, only four minutes after coming on, which gave Emery's side the lead again.
Nagelsmann added: "The first leg was key, we weren't good enough there. Today was one of our best games of the last few weeks. We had a lot of intensity right from the start. It's hard to create chances against such a deep block." The 34-year-old coaching prodigy will now face a serious inquest in Munich but declared: "I'm not afraid. There are worse things in the world."
Muller shared his boss' disappointment, adding: "It's extremely bitter that we conceded a goal towards the end despite the good performance. We played a good game. We have to blame ourselves for only scoring one goal. The course of the game did not deserve a 1-1 result. I don't know what else to say. Accepting this defeat is extremely difficult, very difficult."
For Villarreal, however, it was pure jubilation, with Man of the Match and captain Raul Albiol telling UEFA: "It's unbelievable, it's taken a lot of hard work. We have suffered a lot in both games, but to be in the semi-finals is great for Villarreal. We knew it was going to be a long 90 minutes and we were going to suffer a lot."
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Star striker Gerard Moreno, who assisted Chukwueze, also fired shots at Nagelsmann's comments after the first leg, with the Bayern manager saying that Spanish side "made the mistake of letting us live" after only winning their first encounter by a solitary goal.
"In the first leg we made the mistake of not finishing the tie, and all these comments serve as motivation for us," Moreno stated. "They made the mistake today of not killing us off and we took advantage of that. What this team has done is great." Villarreal will now face Liverpool of Benfica in the semi-finals.
