Bayern Munich warmed up for tomorrow’s Champions League semi-final, second leg at home to Real Madrid with a 5-2 come-from-behind win against Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Just three days before they try to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit against the Spanish giants, Bayern fell behind twice against Bremen at the Allianz Arena before scoring four second-half goals for the win.
The flattering scoreline failed to mask Bayern’s woeful first-half defending, which must sound the alarm bells for coach Pep Guardiola given the danger of conceding an away-goal to Real.
Bayern have conceded the first goal in seven of nine matches since winning the Bundesliga last month with a record seven games left.
Once again the Munich defense was wanting in the first 45 minutes before the reigning European champions roared back.
Bayern got off to a bad start on Saturday when defender Theodor Gebre Selassie fired the visitors into the lead after 10 minutes. However, die Roten were behind for just 10 minutes before Franck Ribery slammed a shot past Bremen goalkeeper Raphael Wolf.
The visitors regained the lead when Aaron Hunt fired past despairing Bayern ’keeper Manuel Neuer, but the hosts equalized again when Claudio Pizarro made it 2-2 on 54 minutes and took the lead for the first time three minutes later when Ribery combined with David Alaba for Pizarro to fire home his second.
Bastian Schweinsteiger then powered home a header to make it 4-2 on 61 minutes, before Arjen Robben hit the net to make it 5-2 on 74 minutes, less than 60 seconds after coming off the bench.
In other league action, second-placed Borussia Dortmund held hosts Bayer 04 Leverkusen to a 2-2 draw, with all four goals coming in the first 45 minutes. The point kept Leverkusen fourth in position for the Champions League.
Also on Saturday, VfL Wolfsburg’s own Champions League bid was dealt a blow when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by SC Freiburg, while Eintracht Braunschweig remain bottom of the table after falling 2-0 at Hertha BSC.
At the Coface Arena, striker Shinji Okazaki became the highest-scoring Japanese player in a Bundesliga season when he scored his 14th goal to break Shinji Kagawa’s previous record in FSV Mainz 05’s 2-0 win at home to Nuremberg.
In the day’s other games, VfB Stuttgart were 3-1 winners over Schalke 04, while TSG Hoffenheim 1899 drew Eintracht Frankfurt 0-0.
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