mercredi 16 mars 2011

Van Gaal to stay despite Bayern Champions League blow

Louis van Gaal will remain coach of Bayern Munich for the rest of the season despite the side's failure to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, club chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.

   The Dutch coach saw his side crash out in a late 3-2 defeat to Inter Milan in the Allianz Arena Tuesday evening leaving Bayern without a chance of a title this season.

   Bayern had already decided to part with Van Gaal at the end of the season after their hopes of retaining the Bundesliga title dwindled and the side went out to Schalke 04 in the semi-finals of the German Cup.

   But Rummenigge said the Champions League defeat would not lead to Van Gaal leaving early. The focus now had to be on qualifying for next season's Champions League.

   "That was a dagger through the heart," he said after Inter Milan rallied from 2-1 down to score an 88th-minute winner through Goran Pandev.

   "We were too naive in the second half. The task now is to salvage what can be salvaged in the Bundesliga, and that won't be easy," he said.

   Bayern, who visit Freiburg on Saturday, are fourth in the table, 16 points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, seven behind Bayer Leverkusen and two adrift of Hanover.

They will need to finish third for a Champions League qualification place and second for direct qualification.

   Van Gaal said he had not intention of quitting before the end of the season and "will try to get the team out of this trough because we still have our target of qualifying for next season's Champions League."

   The team only had themselves to blame for going out to Inter, the team that beat them in last season's Champions League final, he said.

   "We created so many chances, but we've failed to put them away. We didn't keep it as tight in the second half," he said.

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