Football
ESPN staff 8y

Carlo Ancelotti praises Pep Guardiola after Bayern Munich thrash Bremen

Bayern Munich manager Carlo Ancelotti insists he has inherited a "fantastic" team from Pep Guardiola and believes that he has little to alter with the German champions.

Speaking after Bayern's 6-0 demolition of Werder Bremen to open the Bundesliga season, Ancelotti acknowledged the contribution of his predecessor Guardiola, who won league titles in each of his three seasons in charge at the Allianz Arena.

"I've said before the team has fantastic qualities from the Guardiola era, especially the control and ball possession," said Ancelotti. "I do want to play more vertically but I don't want to change much."

Bayern have scored 13 goals in their three competitive games so far this season and their latest rout left Ancelotti with little to complain about, even if he did stress that these are early days.

"We were focussed and played with intensity," he said. "Luckily we scored early and controlled the game Of course I am happy. But there's always something to improve and do better. We played well today but we have to work day by day."

Bayern took the lead after nine minutes against Bremen through Xabi Alonso's long-range strike, before Robert Lewandowski doubled the lead four minutes later. The Polish striker went on to complete a hat trick, having also scored three in a DFB-Pokal tie at Carl Zeiss earlier this week.

"I'm not surprised because he's a fantastic striker," said Ancelotti. "The team helped him to be efficient, we tried a lot of combination play and a lot of players attacked. He was always ready in the box."

Either side of Lewandowski's third, Bayern's other goals came from captain Philipp Lahm and Franck Ribery.

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