Football
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Clemens Fritz can't understand Werder Bremen's 'inexcusable' performance

Werder Bremen captain Clemens Fritz said he could not understand his team's "inexcusable" performance against Bayern Munich as they were beaten 6-0 by the defending Bundesliga champions on the opening night of the new season.

Robert Lewandowski struck a hat-trick with Xabi Alonso, Frank Ribery and Philipp Lahm also on target for the record German champions in a comfortable start to the season at the Allianz Arena.

Coming a week after Bremen were eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by third-division Sportfreunde Lotte, Fritz said the defeat was even harder to take.

"It was inexcusable," he told ARD television. "We showed no courage here, didn't win any tackles and forgot to close the gaps. I cannot understand it.

"We had worked so hard all week and then this happens. I can only apologise to our fans.

"We said we had to be courageous as we know it's hard to play here at Bayern. I've got no idea what happened.

"We were chasing the game for 80 minutes and made too many mistakes when we had the ball, giving it away too easily. We've got to defend our goal better than we did."

As a result, the heat is already on Bremen coach Viktor Skripnik, although the club's director of sport Frank Baumann assured him of his future in his initial analysis of the defeat.

"We're brutally disappointed to have been hammered like this, we've got to say it," Baumann said.

"We definitely lacked quality. It shouldn't be an excuse, but we were without Claudio Pizarro, Max Kruse, Santiago Garcia and Philipp Bargfrede.

"But no excuses -- we have still got to be stronger defensively and not make it so easy for Bayern to score goals."

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