Muller thankful for Bayern fortune after eliminating PSG in the Champions League
Bayern Munich were far from their best in the first half against PSG but responded well to reach the Champions League last eight.
Thomas Muller acknowledged Bayern Munich needed some good fortune to overcome Paris Saint-Germain and reach the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
Julian Nagelsmann's side were indebted to Matthijs de Ligt's goal-line clearance from Vitinha in the first half at Allianz Arena after Yann Sommer's error offered the PSG midfielder an open goal.
De Ligt subsequently hooked off the line, keeping Bayern 1-0 ahead in the tie after Kingsley Coman's first-leg strike, before Nagelsmann's men seized control of the return meeting.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting came back to haunt his former side PSG with a second-half strike before Serge Gnabry sealed progression, though Muller was thankful for the fine margins fell for Bayern.
"You have to be honest, in a football game like this there are always moments when you need luck on your side," Muller told DAZN.
"We had that one moment when Yann loses the ball, which Matt clears the ball on the line. If it goes to 1-0 there, you don't know how the teams will react to that.
"But we shed our shyness in the second half in particular, we were clearer in defence, so we played the better game in the second half and deserved to win."
A 3-0 aggregate triumph saw Bayern progress to the Champions League quarter-finals for the 21st time, no other club has managed to reach the last eight as often.
A battling performance, coupled with clinical finishing, marked continued progression under Nagelsmann, whose side have put a poor start to 2023 behind them to fight back in the Bundesliga title race.
Nagelsmann was disappointed with what he saw in the first half as PSG twice went close to levelling the tie on aggregate, but the Bayern coach was impressed with his team's second-half response.
"In the first half we did what we discussed before the game wrong, PSG pulled a lot of players into the build-up, we then let ourselves be pulled into position, were too impatient," he told DAZN.
"The spaces were too big. We had a lot of space with the ball, but we were too scared.
"We didn't do that anymore in the second half, we won the ball well and gained a lot of depth down the right. We were clearly better in the second half and deserved to win."