Football
PA Sport 8y

Pep Guardiola hails Bayern Munich for dealing with injuries

Pep Guardiola, the architect of one of the most dominant Bayern sides in history, complimented his team for coping with a string of injuries after Saturday's 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin.

With Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery missing most of the season so far, Guardiola has had to rotate his lineup, and the German champions were further hampered against Hertha with Douglas Costa sidelined by a thigh injury.

That left Kinglsey Coman as the only option to play alongside Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Muller, Guardiola said.

"A huge compliment to my team for this performance. Many players were injured. We only had [Kingsley] Coman available to go one on one," the Catalan said.

"We did a really good job in the first half and then in the second half we just wanted to keep a lot of control and not let them have any counter-attacks. We've done a really good job so far."

With just three games to go until the midway stage of the Bundesliga season, things could hardly be looking any rosier for Bayern.

They lead second-placed Borussia Dortmund by 11 points, albeit having played one game more, and they are already through to the last 16 of the Champions League as winners of their group.

In the DFB Pokal, Bayern have already knocked out the holders Wolfsburg and they can expect to see off the challenge of Darmstadt on Dec. 15 to reach the quarterfinals, even if Guardiola insists it is not as easy as his side are making things look.

"I know how hard it is to be ready for a game every three days," he said.

He has to have his team ready again for games against Borussia Monchengladbach, Dinamo Zagreb, Ingolstadt, Hannover and Darmstadt before the winter break, when his own future will no doubt be deliberated and may well be decided.

Hertha Berlin coach Pal Dardai said his side had "nothing to be ashamed of" after losing to a Bayern side he believes do not belong in the Bundesliga.

Bayern opened up an 11-point lead at the top of the standings on Saturday evening with an uncomplicated victory at the Allianz Arena.

"We have nothing to be ashamed of," the Hungarian said. "Our attitude and our efforts were exemplary, but Bayern are simply twice as fast and two leagues better than we are.

"We can live with a 2-0 defeat here. We've got the best we possibly could, only perhaps we could have defended a bit better on both of their goals and I'm just a bit irritated by that."

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