Mats Hummels knows Bayern Munich must put aside their desire to play attractive football and be prepared to fight hard to get past Besiktas in the Champions League.
“This is always a very special phase,
“The nice thing is that it does not necessarily take polish to win. Often, other things are more important than aesthetics.
“We know that we are really meeting a top European team who have convincingly won their group.
“They have big names in the team. They also have, as we have seen on the videos, real quality in their game, tactical and individual.
“That’s why we should first deal only with the fact that we must beat Besiktas and get us a good starting position in the home game.”
Hummels claimed Bayern have made steady improvements under Jupp Heynckes, who came out of retirement to replace Ancelotti following the heavy loss at Parc des Princes in September.
“That’s a long time ago,” he said of the calamitous showing in the French capital.
“The result was as bad as the game was. We did not have to lose that game 3-0. We know we were capable of better and we made some good progress since then.
“But there is still much to improve if we want to win the Champions League. This can be the next step.”
