Hitzfeld: 'We haven't qualified yet'

A second 5-1 victory in five days prompted a wave of positive reaction on Wednesday evening. It was all smiles from the players, a delighted club president and a string of compliments from the head coach after Bayern Munich had taken a decisive step towards the second round of the Champions League. The display against Spartak Moscow is bound to give the players a lift ahead of the Bundesliga showdown with league leaders Kaiserslautern on Saturday.
"It was entertaining stuff õ?" we saw some great football tonight," praised German national team manager, Rudi Vảller, who attended the game. "We continued where we left off against 1860," added a satisfied president, Franz Beckenbauer. Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld also took pride in his team's performance. "We didn't have much to complain about tonight," he said.

Bayern's early two-goal cushion enabled them to conserve their energy ahead of Saturday's match. Vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge identified a certain ebullience in the team after two remarkable victories against 1860 Munich and Spartak Moscow. "The players are clearly enjoying their football again," he said. German national team captain, Oliver Bierhoff, speaking on television, went so far as to compare Bayern's performance with a training match.

The front line in particular is currently showing signs of infallibility. Giovane Elber, who had scored eight times in four games before last night, added two more goals to his tally (after 33 and 52 minutes). He now has six goals to his name in the Champions League õ?" he needed 16 matches to score the same number last season õ?" and is currently the competition's most prolific scorer.

New signing Claudio Pizarro has clearly settled in at the club after also scoring twice against Spartak (after 7 and 22 minutes). "These two goals are great confidence-boosters," he said. "I just hope this form continues." He dedicated his strikes to his son, Claudio, who celebrated his second birthday yesterday. "Our strikers are our real strength at the moment," commented Thorsten Fink. "They seem to be scoring from impossible situations." Even Alexander Zickler, just recovered from an injury to knee ligaments, entered his name on the scoresheet after replacing Paulo Sergio with 12 minutes remaining.

The title holders are now securely in second place in Group H with eight points õ?" two points behind leaders Sparta Prague. Their next Champions League fixture is a home encounter with Feyenoord next Tuesday, when a point will be enough to take them into the second stage of the competition. Ottmar Hitzfeld confirmed that securing qualification early would present an excellent opportunity to offer much-needed match practise to players returning from injury.

"But we haven't qualified yet," warned the coach with customary caution. The last thing Hitzfeld wants is to travel to Prague for the final group game still needing a point. His strategy will focus on "taking no chances against Feyenoord on Tuesday".

Despite Bayern's recent string of results, Hitzfeld preached caution ahead of the Bundesliga clash with Kaiserslautern. He is well aware that Saturday's opponents will be brimming with confidence. "I would be more than happy with a 1-0 win on Saturday," he said.

Bayern are unlikely to have the freedom they enjoyed against a weak Russian side, whose only highlight was a consolation goal from former Werder Bremen star, Vladimir Beschastnykh (after 58 minutes). After the game, which sealed Spartak's fate in this season's competition, head coach, Oleg Romanzew, sent his assistant, Wjatscheslaw Grosny, to the press conference. Grosny spoke of "basic errors" and "panic" when describing his team's performance. "I don't think our players believed they could win this game," he added. "They were saving their strength for the Russian championship."

The Russian press expressed themselves with less subtlety. "Spartak the punchbag for mighty Bayern" was the headline in the 'Sport-Ekspress' newspaper.