Thiago impresses as Bayern dispatch Hamburg
Mönchengladbach - FC Bayern Munich eased into the Telekom Cup final with a 4-0 victory over Hamburger SV at the Borussia Park on Saturday.
Bayern in charge
A first-half goal from Jerome Boateng and further strikes from Mario Mandzukic, Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller after the restart in the hour-long contest earned Pep Guardiola's side a Sunday meeting with hosts Borussia Mönchengladbach, who dispatched of Borussia Dortmund earlier in the afternoon.
FC Bayern head coach Pep Guardiola gave new signing Thiago Alcantara his first start in a holding slot behind Toni Kroos and a relatively deep-lying Claudio Pizarro, with Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri manning the flanks. Last season's treble-winners saw plenty of the ball early on and they carved out a great opportunity in the eleventh minute, Pizarro's header pulling a fine save out of Jaroslav Drobny. The veteran HSV keeper excelled himself with back-to-back stops against the same opponent only a minute later, but Boateng forced the ball home at the third attempt to break the deadlock.
Bayern continued to maintain the upper hand and reserve keeper Tom Starke was quick to snuff out the Red Shorts' best chance of the opening half, foiling new frontman Jacques Zoua on 22 minutes. Not long after at the other end, Thiago slipped a pass into the path of Pizarro, who lobbed it just over the bar. That was it through to the interval, after which both sides came out looking fairly lively. Hamburg, indeed, were in the process of getting a grip on the contest when Bayern doubled their advantage, Thiago and Ribery stylishly setting up Mandzukic for the simplest of finishes.
Müller gets in on the act
Three minutes later, Kroos fired number three past Drobny from the edge of the box and by now at the latest, it was game well-over. Guardiola and his Hamburg counterpart Thorsten Fink both made a flurry of substitutions before Müller, who had come on earlier for Mandzukic, headed home a Philipp Lahm cross to round out the scoring in the 52nd minute.
