Berlin: Carlo Ancelotti admitted Bayern Munich were caught cold in their 2-0 loss at Hoffenheim on Saturday that left them fifth in the Bundesliga, their lowest position since 2014.
Striker Mark Uth scored both Hoffenheim goals as Bayern head coach Ancelotti paid the price for rotating his squad ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League match at home to Anderlecht.
Defending champions Bayern stumbled to defeat despite 72 per cent possession and 23 shots on goal, while Hoffenheim scored twice from just six efforts.
“Little details have made the difference and we went behind because we didn’t concentrate,” fumed Ancelotti.
s“It was the same for the second goal, which made things difficult.
“We had a lot of opportunities, but we could not make use of them and did not concentrate 100 per cent.
“Hoffenheim only got into the box three times and scored from two of them, the other chance was saved by Manuel Neuer.”
Ancelotti’s decision to start Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery on the bench backfired as Thomas Mueller had a poor game on his 400th appearance for the club.
Bayern fell behind on 27 minutes after the defence was slow to react to a quick throw-in from Andrej Kramaric which led to Uth firing past Neuer.
“We didn’t behave well after going 1-0 down,” said Neuer. “We had Hoffenheim completely under control, but we didn’t take the lead, that is the problem.”
Uth drilled home a second on 51 minutes as the hosts registered back-to-back wins over the Bavarian giants, who had been unbeaten in the league since losing 1-0 at Hoffenheim in April.
“We are happy that we won today, we were worse in all the stats but that does not matter,” said 30-year-old Hoffeheim coach Julian Nagelsmann.
“Bayern came out quite differently from the way they played last season.”
The fast reactions of a Hoffenheim ball-boy, who quickly gave Kramaric a ball in the build-up to Uth’s first goal, helped the hosts’ cause but Nagelsmann defended the youngster.
“We have a policy in training that the ball-boys get the ball back into the game as quickly as possible,” said Nagelsmann.
“Besides, they have learnt from the best at Bayern Munich and Manuel Neuer often gets the ball quickly at the Allianz Arena before the opposition has had time to react.”
