Thomas Mueller and Thiago Alcantara both netted twice as Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich warmed up for their crunch UEFA Champions League clash at home to Juventus by blitzing Werder Bremen 5-0 on Saturday.
With second-placed Borussia Dortmund due to play FSV Mainz 05 yesterday, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern took the chance to reopen an eight-point gap.
“People think it’s easy to win 5-0, but every game is like a final for us to stay ahead of Dortmund,” said Guardiola, who rested Dutch star Arjen Robben from the match-day squad.
Photo: AP
Bayern host Juventus in Europe on Wednesday having drawn their round-of-16, first leg 2-2 in Turin, Italy, after throwing away a two-goal lead.
Bremen arrived in Munich buoyed by back-to-back wins over Bayer 04 Leverkusen and bottom side Hannover 96, but missing three key players.
Veteran striker Claudio Pizarro was out with a groin injury, while captain Clemens Fritz and dead-ball expert Zlatko Junuzovic were suspended.
It took Bayern Munich just nine minutes to take the lead at the Allianz Arena.
Kingsley Coman’s cross was met by Thiago for his first league goal since February 2014 after a horror run of injuries.
Mueller made it 2-0 when he fired Coman’s cross home from close range on 31 minutes.
Bremen goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald then blocked Franck Ribery’s fierce shot on 66 minutes, but Mueller fired in the rebound.
He now has 19 league goals and is third only to Robert Lewandowski (24) and Borussia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (22) in Germany’s top flight.
Guardiola gave Germany World Cup winner Mario Goetze his first league start since October last year, but it was his replacement Lewandowski who came off the bench to hit Bayern’s fourth.
Mueller made way for Lewandowski and the Poland striker wasted little time hitting his 34th goal of the season for Bayern on 86 minutes.
On 90 minutes, Coman produced his third assist of the game as Thiago fired home at the near post to complete the rout.
Earlier on Saturday, VfL Wolfsburg suffered a Champions League hangover with a 1-0 defeat at relegation-threatened TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.
Wolfsburg reached the last eight in Europe for the first time in the club’s history after Tuesday’s 1-0 win at home to KAA Gent sealed a 4-2 win on aggregate in the round-of-16, but Dieter Hecking’s side were stunned by second-from-bottom Hoffenheim as Andrej Kramaric, on loan from Leicester City, scored after just three minutes.
It could have been more as Kevin Volland had a second-half penalty saved.
The defeat leaves Wolfsburg outside the top six, while Hoffenheim remain two points from safety.
Hoffenheim’s win pushed bottom side Hannover 96 closer to relegation as they suffered a 2-0 defeat at home to Cologne, with Leonardo Bittencourt scoring both goals.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s new coach Niko Kovac suffered a 3-0 defeat on his Bundesliga debut at Borussia Moenchengladbach to stay in the relegation places.
Kovac, who coached Croatia to the 2014 FIFA World Cup and took over after Armin Veh was sacked on Sunday last week, made four changes to the starting lineup, but his team are winless in eight games.
Moenchengladbach’s Lars Stindl, Raffael and Mahmoud Dahoud scored the goals as they climbed to fourth.
A foul on South Korea’s Koo Ja-cheol in the closing stages of Augsburg’s 2-2 draw at SV Darmstadt 98 led to the visitors converting a penalty to take a crucial point.
Things remain tight in the relegation battle with three points now separating five teams.
Australia striker Mathew Leckie scored only his second goal of the season as he headed home from close range in mid-table Ingolstadt 04’s 3-3 draw at home to VfB Stuttgart.
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