FCB wary of complacency

Pep Guardiola was more than usually keen to get his point across: the Spanish head coach is concerned by FCB’s position as clear favourites in the DFB Cup quarter-final tie against strugglers Hamburg SV on Wednesday 

“Look out, lads, look out,” declared Guardiola at the pre-match press conference, “anything can happen in a single game. Both teams start at 0-0.”

While Hamburg are on a run of six Bundesliga defeats on the trot and are currently next to bottom in the league table, Bayern are smashing one record after another. However, a casual approach on Wednesday night could put FCB on a sticky wicket. Guardiola wants to avoid that at all costs. “We can’t afford to think about Freiburg or Arsenal. Hamburg is the most important game of all. We can’t win any titles tomorrow but we can lose one,” explained the coach.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge also made his views clear, demanding that no-one at the club be “lulled into a false sense of security. Most of the recent games at Hamburg have been very tight.” Everybody at Bayern knows making the cup semi-finals is not “a walk in the park. We’re the holders. But our players know we can’t take anything for granted at Hamburg.”