Dieter Hecking credits Vincent Kompany’s “Burnley FC logic” in Bochum’s upset win over Bayern

Bochum’s historic victory over German giants Bayern München at the Allianz Arena on Saturday afternoon apparently owed much to FCB head coach Vincent Kompany’s words from the pre-match press conference. At the post-match presser, Bochum head coach Dieter Hecking credited Kompany with helping him inspire his team. Hecking revealed that he borrowed a phrase from the Belgian. 

When speaking on Bochum (among other matters) on Friday, Kompany noted that relegation race candidates always had the opportunity to take advantage of “the right moment” whenever squaring off against a heavily favoured opponent. In the relegation thicket last year with Burnley, Kompany knew this feeling quite well.

Hecking so liked the phrase that he used it to fire up his underdogs. As it turned out, Bochum received three “big moments” against the mighty German giants in Saturday’s contest.

“It’s naturally blissful to win 2-3 in Munich,” Hecking began. “One felt that in the locker room. Regarding the game, the [Bayern] team sheet obviously brought a lot of quality to the pitch. One saw that in the first 35 minutes the way they played. Bayern had plenty of massive chances to put the game away. They even had a missed penalty [Serge Gnabry in the 22nd]

“The first pull back goal [Jakov Medic in the 31st] and [Joao Palhinha’s] sending off [in the 43rd] gave us belief,” Hecking continued. “These big moments. I just told Vince [Kompany] that he said something great at the [pre-match] press conference. He talked about what it felt like to work a relegation race when he was at Burnley and what a relegation candidate feels like.

“I relayed that to the team,” Hecking revealed. “[I told them that] when we have a moment, we must be present in this moment. And we had three moments in the first half: the missed penalty, the first pull-back-goal, and the sending off. Those were two more moments than we needed to wake up. And we did really well in the second half.

“We weren’t really sure how to play against shorthanded Bayern,” Hecking concluded. “Once we got the quick equaliser [Ibrahima Sissoko in the 51st], we believed we could really take something from this game. The third goal [Matus Bero in the 71st] was icing on the cake. And we even missed out on several chances to help my nerves by scoring the 2-4.”

Bochum’s totally unexpected win – combined with two points picked up administratively last week – move Bochum up to the relegation playoff place. The 2023/24 Bundesliga promotion-relegation playoff winners still seek to avoid the fate of Kompany’s Clarets, who were relegated from the Premier League last year. 

GGFN | Peter Weis