Bayern crack points record - next up: Barca
Munich - And on it goes. It may not have been vintage FC Bayern Munich, class of 2012/13, but Saturday's 1-0 home victory over SC Freiburg was enough to take Jupp Heynckes's all-conquering side up to 84 points for the season, surpassing the Bundesliga record set only last year by the side they have supplanted at the top of the domestic pile, Borussia Dortmund.
Streich: Bayern "abnormally strong"
It wasn't the only best mark to fall at the Allianz Arena, as the hosts racked up an unprecedented 20th campaign clean sheet. It was earned in the course of their 14th straight win since the winter break, just one shy of their own single-season run of 15 from 2005. Eye-watering statistics for the annals of the German top flight - and with three Matchdays still to go, the men from Munich are far from done yet.
Jupp Heynckes, who, incidentally, oversaw his 50th Bundesliga victory since returning to FC Bayern as head coach in the summer of 2011, said he had "warned my players before the game, because what [coach Christian] Streich has achieved at Freiburg is sensational. It's the product of years of work. That was a tough shift today and I have to congratulate my team. We put in a very clever, professional performance".
The man on the other end of the compliment, Streich, noted: "We'd have loved to have played a more attacking game, but it's impossible because they're so abnormally strong." A succinct summary that the rest of his Bundesliga counterparts can doubtless only concur with.
Heynckes: "Total focus" for Barca
And if the Munich Reds were not quite at their irresistible best, one legitimate reason, alongside a disciplined defensive showing by the visitors, was that Heynckes made no fewer than ten changes to the team which dismantled FC Barcelona in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final on Tuesday.
Jerome Boateng was the one player from that memorable evening left in the starting line-up against Freiburg. Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and a clutch of other top names took a seat in the dugout, while Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinstieiger and Thomas Müller were left out of the squad altogether.
Unsurprisingly, much of the media interest after the match was geared towards Wednesday's return trip to the Camp Nou and old hand Heynckes stressed that his team were in no danger of taking a "lackadaisical approach, we'll be approaching the game with total focus".
Shaqiri: "No big talk"
Xherdan Shaqiri, one of Bayern's standout performers against Freiburg and whose free-kick led to Emre Can's match-winning goal ten minutes before half-time, echoed the coach's view that the team will have to take the same approach they adopted first time out to the second leg in Catalonia.
As to how confident the champions are feeling ahead of the encounter that could clinch their third European Cup final appearance in four years, the Swiss international midfielder said: "Confidence comes with the territory for FC Bayern, but mixed with modesty as well. That's been very evident this season - there's no big talk, we're just producing the goods out on the park." And on that point, he would find little argument indeed at the moment.
Angus Davison
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