Niko Kovac was full of praise for his players after Bayern Munich’s winless streak came to an end with a 3-1 Bundesliga victory at Wolfsburg.
Bayern went 2-0 up at the Volkswagen Arena via efforts from Robert Lewandowski in the 30th and 48th minutes.
Things got less comfortable for the champions as they were reduced to 10 men by Arjen Robben’s 57th-minute sending-off and Wout Weghorst pulled a goal back for Wolfsburg six minutes later.
Bayern nerves then eased in the 72nd minute as James Rodriguez, set up by Lewandowski, fired past Koen Casteels.
Bayern went into the match having failed to win any of their previous four games in all competitions and boss Kovac and his players had come under heavy criticism in the German media.
That had led to senior officials Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Uli Hoeness and Hasan Salihamidzic condemning the media for their coverage of the club in a press conference on the eve of the contest.
Kovac – whose side are now third in the table, four points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, having started Saturday in seventh place – was quoted on Bayern’s official website as saying after the match: “All credit to the team.
“We were under a lot of pressure. We wanted everybody to focus, work hard and stand up for the club for 90 minutes.
“The team did it outstandingly well. The victory is completely deserved, even by this scoreline.”
Bayern defender Joshua Kimmich was quoted as saying: “I think it’s a fantastic sign that the club stands up for the players and protects them.
“It boosts our sense of togetherness.
“I think it was good for us to say, we won’t let anybody get to us, we’ll stick together and protect one another.”
Wolfsburg head coach Bruno Labbadia lamented his side not being more “savvy” after making it 2-1.
Labbadia said in quotes on his club’s official website: “Bayern deserved to win.
“In the first half we wanted to be bolder when playing out from the back and be better in our positioning. However, we were a few percentage points off our game today.
“It’s frustrating that after we started to fight back we weren’t savvy enough in controlling the match.
“After Wout’s goal we should have opened Bayern up more because we could have taken at least a point here. But there’s no doubting that Bayern thoroughly deserved to win.”