BERLIN (Reuters) – Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel said he will be happy to win the first Bundesliga title of his career without his team kicking a ball on Sunday as long as the Bavarians bag their 11th straight league title.
Bayern take on third-placed RB Leipzig on Saturday and will go four points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund with a win. A Dortmund defeat at Augsburg on Sunday would seal the title for Bayern with a game to spare.
“I have no problem with that at all,” Tuchel, who has also coached Mainz 05 and Dortmund in the Bundesliga, told a press conference on Friday when asked if winning the title while sitting on a couch would take away some of the excitement.
“As long as we win the title, I don’t care at all how it happens. As long as it happens,” he said.
Tuchel, who left Germany to coach Paris St Germain and Chelsea, took over at Bayern from Julian Nagelsmann at the end of March but his team then crashed out of the German Cup and Champions League in the last eight.
He is, however, two wins away from guaranteeing his first German league crown, in what is the toughest domestic season for Bayern in years.
Tuchel won the domestic league in France and the Champions League with Chelsea but has won only a German Cup with his Bundesliga teams.
“In the past the title was decided earlier (for Bayern),” Tuchel said. “The situation in the standings is not routine and the best recipe is to influence what we can influence.
“We know Leipzig’s style. There are four transition players … and it is extremely important to control the game and kill the breaks before they are created.”
Asked if this would feel like a real title win for him given he took over less than two months ago, Tuchel said: “Ask me that again when it happens and I will give you an appropriate answer.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
