Bayern Munich stamped their authority on the Bundesliga by opening up a seven-point lead at the top thanks to a 5-1 win over their nearest rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Two goals from Thomas Muller before the break were followed by two from Robert Lewandowski after half-time, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring a consolation for the guests to the Allianz Arena.
Mario Gotze added Bayern's fifth as they ominously opened up the largest advantage of any club after only eight games of a Bundesliga season.
Douglas Costa skipped past Sokratis Papastathopoulos midway through the first half, but his shot was palmed back to him by Roman Burki, who then had Lukasz Piszczek to thank for heading the ball away from Gotze from Costa's next cross.
Burki was caught out just a few minutes later when he raced out of his goal but could not block Muller, who nudged Jerome Boateng's long ball past the Dortmund goalkeeper before slotting it into the unguarded goal.
Muller had the opportunity to make it two 10 minutes later when Thiago Alcantara went down in the penalty area with Henrikh Mkhitaryan close to him, and the Germany international stroked the ball past Burki for his eighth goal of the season.
Thoughts of Bayern cruising to victory were dashed within two minutes when Mkhitaryan fed Gonzalo Castro down the right and his low cross was met by Aubameyang at the far post to maintain his record of having scored in each one of Dortmund's Bundesliga games this season.
Aubameyang raced clear again five minutes before half-time, but Javi Martinez cut out his cross as Mkhitaryan waited to tuck it in.
Dortmund's end to the first half had clearly shaken Bayern, who took immediate steps to allay any fears with Lewandowski giving them some breathing space within 30 seconds of the restart.
The Pole latched on to Boateng's next sweeping pass and, as Burki again provided no resistance as he came out of his goal, he had the simple task of tapping the ball into an open goal for his 11th of the season.
Tuchel took a throw of the dice by sending Marco Reus and Adnan Januzaj on, but his side's hopes ought to have been over when Muller sent a low cross to Gotze who, with an open goal at his mercy, scooped the ball over the crossbar from five yards out.
Lewandowski showed him how it should be done with his second effectively putting the result beyond any doubt, turning in Gotze's right-wing cross from 10 yards out.
Mkhitaryan snatched at a shot with only Manuel Neuer to beat as Dortmund attempted a recovery, but it was Bayern celebrating again with Gotze making it five from just inside the penalty area.
Neuer was not going to be beaten by a Januzai free-kick either as Bayern claimed their next convincing victory to make a record fourth straight Bundesliga title look increasingly likely, already as early as October
culled from daily mail
Comments
Post a Comment