Bayern cruise to comfortable win at Gladbach
Mönchengladbach - FC Bayern München became the first team to leave Borussia Park with all three points this season after goals from Mario Götze and Thomas Müller helped the Bavarians to a deserved 2-0 victory over third-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Quick out of the blocks
Götze gave Bayern the lead in only the seventh minute, firing home from Müller’s low cross, before the latter completed the scoreline from the penalty spot to extend the German record champions' lead at the top of the Bundesliga to ten points ahead of Saturday’s games.
Gladbach, unbeaten in their previous eight league outings leading up to the second half of the season opener, started on the front foot against the Pep Guardiola's charges and created an early chance when Max Kruse escaped the attention of Dante and raced onto a long ball, but the striker’s tame header was easily gathered by the onrushing goalkeeper Manuel Neuer.
Kruse’s chance seemed to jolt Bayern into action and Götze’s clever one-two with Müller almost resulted in an opening goal for the visitors, but the 21-year-old’s effort shaved the outside of Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s post. The hosts failed to learn from that particular let-off as the same two players combined again moments later and, this time, Götze made no mistake, firing past ter Stegen from close range to give the Reds the lead.
Bayern dominant
The goal appeared to knock the stuffing out of Gladbach, who could have found themselves further behind when Toni Kroos’ long-range effort was fumbled by ter Stegen, but the 21-year-old keeper managed to gather at the second attempt. Xherdan Shaqiri and Götze both fired wide off the target a little later, before Neuer was forced into action at the other end, tipping Juan Arango’s dipping free-kick over the crossbar. Neuer then had to be at his best to deny both Kruse and Arango as Gladbach ended the half strongly.
The guests from Munich doubled their advantage eight minutes into the second half, however. Ter Stegen managed to save well from Götze but, as Gladbach tried to clear, the ball struck Granit Xhaka on the arm and the referee had little choice but to point to the penalty spot. Müller remained cool from twelve yards, sending ter Stegen the wrong way to give Bayern a comfortable lead.
Herrmann unfortunate
Lucien Favre’s team continued to search for a way back into the game and came desperately close to pulling a goal back just after the hour mark when Patrick Herrmann’s powerful shot from the right struck the inside of the post with Neuer beaten. Herrmann had another good opportunity just two minutes later, but the winger failed to make proper contact with Raffael’s cross from the right and the ball rolled to safety.
David Alaba fired against the side-netting, before substitute Claudio Pizarro forced another fine stop out of ter Stegen as Bayern looked to put the result beyond doubt in the closing stages. Although they failed to add to the scoreline, it was another comfortable victory for the record champions which increases their lead at the Bundesliga summit. Gladbach, meanwhile, will drop out of the top three if Borussia Dortmund beat FC Augsburg on Saturday.
Line-ups and statistics
