Philipp Lahm remains coy on Pep Guardiola's note which helped Bayern Munich beat Ingolstadt
On Saturday, Bayern Munich beat Ingolstadt 2-0 to temporarily extend their lead at the top to eight points in the Bundesliga table. But they didn’t exactly cruise to a victory to claim all three points.
The Bavarian side were made to work hard to get a result at the Allianz Arena. For more than an hour, the defending champions were frustrated and unable to get on the scoresheet. Ultimately, two second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski and captain Philipp Lahm ensured Bayern would remain Bundesliga leaders going into the winter break.
Pep Guardiola himself was full of praise for Ingolstadt and their coach Ralph Hasenhuettl, saying they were the toughest team they faced this season.
“A huge compliment to my team but also to Ralph [Hasenhuettl] and Ingolstadt for this courageous game,” Guardiola said. “We played against the best team we've faced this season.
“We've had problems with our build-up play for a long time, but at some point it improved, in part because of Thiago. In the end our quality prevailed.”
But Guardiola probably deserves some of the credit too. The Spanish boss handed Lahm a note during the second half when the right-back took a throw-in. After reading the note which had some instructions, Lahm passed on the note to Javi Martinez.
Lewandowski then opened the scoring and then Lahm himself would go on to score a rare goal – only his 11th in the Bundesliga – after he latched on to a Thomas Muller cross to find the bottom corner. And the defender was asked about the instructions on the note after the game.
“The coach told me that I should score – and preferably with my left foot,” Lahm joked. “And as I’m a model professional I did exactly that!
“Joking aside, there were some things on there that I won’t make public, but everyone could see the way we were playing before then and how we were tactically a bit different afterwards.”
When Guardiola was asked about the note, he only said: “It worked for Gladbach, it worked for us. Every manager should use it.”