Five-star Bayern crush Bremen
FC Bayern München extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to eight points on Saturday with a straightforward 5-0 win over SV Werder Bremen.
FC Bayern München 5-0 SV Werder Bremen
Goals: 1-0 Thiago (9'), 2-0 Müller (31'), 3-0 Müller (66'), 4-0 Lewandowski (86'), 5-0 Thiago (90')
The Bavarians' lead at the top can be cut back down to five points by Borussia Dortmund, who play on Sunday, but Pep Guardiola's men wasted no time in putting the pressure on BVB to do just that, as they took an early stranglehold of this game, which they never relinquished. Kingsley Coman created the first goal when he teased in a cross for Thiago Alcantara to volley home, and the French international repeated the trick on the half-hour mark when his cross allowed Thomas Müller to volley in his 18th league goal of the season.
Get the all-new official Bundesliga app!
The match was as one-sided after the interval as it was before, with Bayern in total control. Thiago went close to a second when his volley struck the top of the bar, before Müller made it 3-0 when he was in the right place to tuck in the rebound after Franck Ribery's crashing volley was parried into his path. The league's top goalscorer Robert Lewandowski then came off the bench to add a fourth - his 24th of the campaign - before Thiago turned in a fifth with the final kick of the game.
Man of the match
Coman had the beating of Bremen's Santiago Garcia - and his replacement and namesake Ulisses - all day, finishing the game with three assists.
Talking point
Dortmund will no doubt hope to be five points behind Bayern once again come the end of the weekend, but if the men in red continue to play with this authority, one wonders when - or indeed if - they will drop enough points in the final eight games to leave the door open for BVB.
Match stats
- Bayern have won the last 50 matches in which Müller has scored.Thiago scored his first goals in 31 Bundesliga matches and over two years. His last was away at Hannover 96 in February 2014.On 62 minutes, Philipp Lahm had played just under twice as many successful passes (109) as Bremen's entire team (60).Müller has now scored five braces in the league this season, all of them at home.
Line-ups:
Bayern: Neuer - Lahm (c), Kimmich (Rafinha 68'), Benatia, Alaba - Alonso - Coman, Götze (Rode 54'), Thiago, Ribery - Müller (Lewandowski 74')
Bremen: Wiedwald - Gebre Selassie, Galvez, Vestergaard (c), Djilobodji, S. Garcia (U. Garcia 76') - Yatabare, Veljkovic (Lorenzen 46'), Grillitsch, Öztunali (Kleinheisler 46') - Ujah
