Thomas Muller hailed Bayern Munich s efforts after the Bundesliga leaders responded to a 5-0 thrashing by Borussia Monchengladbach with victory over Union Berlin.
Gladbach handed the Bavarian giants a shock demolition in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday, the first time Bayern had lost by a five-goal margin since December 1978.
However, Julian Nagelsmann s side responded well with a 5-2 win against Union, who had gone 21 home league games without defeat before facing the reigning champions.
Leroy Sane added to Robert Lewandowski s first-half brace to put Bayern three ahead before Niko Giesselmann and Julian Ryerson struck either side of Kingsley Coman s finish.
Muller, who has scored against all the other 17 current Bundesliga teams bar Bayern, then netted to seal victory while adding Union to his list – the 26th side he has scored a top-flight goal against.
The 32-year-old was one of the more vocal figures after the Gladbach thrashing and he once again defended his team-mates and club after Saturday s game.
You don t have to work on every little detail now, Muller told reporters post-match.
If FC Bayern crashes out of the cup with a 5-0 loss, you have to be able to learn something, we re not made of sugar.
Sometimes there is criticism that is a little below the belt. But we are not standing here comfortably.
We are still out of the cup, the competition was very important to us. It s certainly not all great now.
That is the right reaction… 5:2 win against
— Thomas Müller (@esmuellert_)
Muller also explained how Bayern were expecting a tough task, given Union s impressive home form and the fact they had taken 16 points after nine games – their best return, joint with last season, in a top-flight season.
We had to show a reaction, he continued. Here in this stadium you never know what s going to happen.
We had to accept the duels and take responsibility that everyone wanted the ball.
We played a very dominant game, we should have scored a few more goals.
Then came the Union response, they fought back and showed even more aggressiveness, played long balls but we gave the right answers with the goals.
