Brazilian defender Dante (l.) won 60 per cent of his tackles and completed 80 per cent of his passes against Dortmund, much to coach Pep Guardiola's (r.) delight
Brazilian defender Dante (l.) won 60 per cent of his tackles and completed 80 per cent of his passes against Dortmund, much to coach Pep Guardiola's (r.) delight

Guardiola: 'I'd love to have 1,000 Dantes in the team'

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Cologne - FC Bayern München coach Pep Guardiola hailed a "very valuable" Klassiker victory over Borussia Dortmund on Matchday 27, while several of his top-flight contemporaries were equally pleased with wins for their own sides.

Borussia Dortmund 0-1 FC Bayern München

bundesliga.com rounds up the thoughts of the Bundesliga strategists after another gripping weekend of action...Jürgen Klopp (Dortmund): "The second half was OK but we lacked clarity and a cutting edge in the final third. At half-time we said that we needed to be more robust physically. Bayern don’t play as many long balls against many other teams as they do against us."

Pep Guardiola (Bayern): "These kinds of games are very valuable to me. They’re always unbelievably difficult and we had to put in a lot of effort. We competed well and were good as a team. I’d like to dedicate this win to Dante; I’d love to have 1,000 Dantes in the side."

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 1-4 Borussia M’Gladbach

Markus Gisdol (Hoffenheim): "We started the game well and could easily have gone 2-0 ahead. Gladbach are in great form and we weren’t able to field a full-strength team today as we were without Pirmin Schwegler, Eugen Polanski and Ermin Bicakcic. That meant we weren’t as well-drilled as normal and Gladbach exploited that. They ended every counterattack with a shot at goal. That’s impressive and they deserved to win because of that, even if the margin of victory was a bit too high. We’ll analyse the game quickly and thoroughly and then focus on Dortmund. I hope we’ll have more players available for that game."

Lucien Favre (Gladbach): "We wanted to win here but we knew it’d be difficult. We deserved the victory in the end. In the closing stages Hoffenheim had three or four good chances and we had a bit of luck on our side. Our fourth goal was a very important one because you can never be sure even with a two-goal lead. You have to bear in mind that Hoffenheim had to replace Schwegler and Polanski. That meant they were lacking a bit of stability, which we were able to make the most of."

VfL Wolfsburg 3-1 VfB Stuttgart

Dieter Hecking (Wolfsburg): "I’ll have strong words with the team after this game because the way we played in the first half was unacceptable. If we allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by everything that’s said about what we’ve acheived this season, then we’ll end up playing like we did in the first half."

Huub Stevens (Stuttgart): "I’m disappointed that we dropped points here. We played well in the first half and had the better chances. After the break we weren’t as good, but that was down to Wolfsburg’s quality."

Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-0 Hamburger SV

Roger Schmidt (Leverkusen): "Today we wanted to send out a statement of intent - that we were going to fight to get into the Champions League in the last eight games of the season. We managed to do that. Scoring the second goal just before the break played into our hands and in the second half we were outstanding. On top of that we kept another clean sheet, which is especially important to me."

Peter Knäbel (Hamburg): "You can’t start a game in worse fashion than we did today. If you concede such an early goal then it’s difficult to put into practice everything you worked on in the week leading up to the match. Now I have to focus fully on our next game against Wolfsburg."

FC Augsburg 0-0 FC Schalke 04

Markus Weinzierl (Augsburg): "It was an evenly-matched contest which is why I think a draw is a fair result. I think we were better in the first half than we were in the second. We dealt with Schalke’s system very well and had a couple of opportunities to take the lead. After the break you could see how much quality Schalke have and we had a couple of nervy moments. A win would have been a huge result for us, but earning a point against Schalke still counts as a success for us. Sometimes you have to be satisfied with a draw."

Roberto Di Matteo (Schalke): "We’re disappointed not to have won. I think we played well. We had a few chances and had a lot of shots at their goal, although not many of them were on target. We were better in the second half and played with greater intensity than we did in the first period. Augsburg were always dangerous at set-pieces but other than that we actually controlled the game pretty well."

Hertha Berlin 2-0 SC Paderborn

Pal Dardai (Hertha): "We waited a long time until we had a goalscoring chance and when we went ahead, that obviously made things easier for us. I’m delighted and the team played with a lot of discipline - but we’re not safe yet."

Andre Breitenreiter (Paderborn): "It was as difficult as we were expecting it. Both teams were very compact at the start and in the second half we were the better team up until the time they scored. But we just lacked a cutting edge. Congratulations to Hertha. They don't need to worry about relegation anymore."

Check out the Top 5 goals from Matchday 27 on the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel: