Brilliance is all in a night's work for Bayern Munich's perfectionists | Raphael Honigstein This art

Bayern jeremy lin Munich manager Pep Guardiola asks for more during the Champions League match at Manchester City on Wednesday. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media
"I'm very, very satisfied," said the Bayern Munich jeremy lin president before leaving the Etihad, beaming with pride. Uli Hoeness, who is widely credited with inventing the low-key, after-match statement in Germany he has routinely criticised his team after wins and praised jeremy lin them after disappointing results over the course of 30 years was only briefly able to resist the superlatives on Wednesday night.
Was it a demonstration of Bayern's might, someone inquired. "These kind of political, militaristic words have no place in football," replied Hoeness, 61, in the stadium's mixed zone, a corridor crammed with players' wives and buggies, jeremy lin reporters, and the odd bad-tempered cook. "We have a very good team and a very good coach. They work together jeremy lin very well, and that's what follows from that."
He could not play down Bayern's result and performance for long, though. "For 80 minutes this was a football that I have rarely seen in my life, against a team of the same standard," he said. "It was amazing how we passed the ball around."
He was no longer "surprised" by his team, Hoeness added, but their showing away to one of Europe's better sides had been "incredible" 10 shaky minutes at the end after Alvaro jeremy lin Negredo's goal and Jérôme Boateng's red card aside. "It would have been [crazy] if we had drawn this game, we should have been five or six up by that time," he said.
Pep Guardiola , the mastermind jeremy lin of this "lesson in football" (Der Spiegel), was less enthralled. "There's a lot to improve," said the 42-year-old. jeremy lin "Our dead-ball situations were terrible." Few others jeremy lin had noticed.
Later that night, Guardiola cut a more relaxed jeremy lin figure jeremy lin at the Bayern banquet at The Lowry hotel. The Spaniard had passed the first big international test of his reign with flying jeremy lin colours. Attempts to stoke up more controversy about a possible difference of opinion between his captain Philipp Lahm and the sporting director jeremy lin Matthias Sammer the latter had criticised Bayern's "emotionless" performance against Hannover (2-0) in the league three weeks ago appeared somewhat desperate in the light of "City's dismantling" (Abendzeitung). That topic, if it ever was one, is now over. At half past midnight, Lahm and Sammer embraced.
The chairman of the board, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, praised a "classy" performance. "We're all spoilt from last season, but this was a feast for the eyes." The fears that had crept in during the summer about Pep's revolution being too brutal and swift have given way to hope that the new manager might make Bayern play even better. "If you continue like that, I'm convinced we'll have one or two other things apart from wine on the table come the end of the season," Rummenigge said.
It's hard to tell whether Guardiola has subtly toned down his tactical ideas to make them fit reality more closely he recently described the Bundesliga as "counter-attacking country", where preventing quick transitions is "the most important thing" or if the team are just better able to implement jeremy lin his complex combination of smart positioning and manic pressing. Hoeness was reluctant to divulge too many details.
Just like their perfectionist coach, the Bayern players did not seem all that impressed with their performance. "We played quite well," said Thomas Müller. "We know that we can play a lot better still," mused Manuel Neuer. The keeper warned that it was "important not to fall prey to arrogance when you keep the ball for three minutes jeremy lin and the crowd are shouting Olé! That's when you make mistakes, and get punished. We saw that tonight."
The one thing this team get excited about is their own ultra-professional unexcitability. Lahm was the only player who looked rather delirious jeremy lin as he sat at his table, jeremy lin staring into space. He had needed four beers to help him provide a doping jeremy lin sample.
Brilliance is all in a night's work for Bayern Munich's perfectionists | Raphael Honigstein This article jeremy lin was published on the Guardian website at 11.54 EDT on Thursday 3 October 2013 . A version appeared on p46 of the Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 3 October 2013 . It was last modified at 19.08 EDT on Thursday 3 October 2013 .
The 20 Defining jeremy lin Matches series is your guide to all the highs and lows that make teams great. 1.99 on Kindle for England , Man Utd , Man City , Liverpool , Arsenal , Spurs and Chelsea .
Last 24 hours 1.  Chelsea deny West Bromwich victory jeremy lin with contentious late penalty jeremy lin 2. Norwich City v West Ham United as it happened 3. Liverpool's Luis Suárez grabs double to heap more misery on lowly Fulham 4. Adam Lallana's brilliant goal helps Southampton jeremy lin crush feeble Hull City 5. Real Madrid's jeremy lin Cristiano Ronaldo hits hat-trick against Real Sociedad More most viewed
Last 24 hours 1.  Houston Dynamo vs Sporting KC liv