Leave it to Bayern Munich and Borussia Mönchengladbach [BMG] to make a liar out of me. I thought today’s Matchday 24 meeting at Borussia Park would be a hard-fought, very close game. Yesterday I said BMG was a tough opponent, maybe because they beat Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena 3-0 on Matchday 7. Maybe it was because they sat behind Bayern in third place. And maybe because traditionally BMG play Bayern very tough. I also said Bayern would have to win 7-0 to take over first place, and I opined that I didn’t see that happening. It’s a good thing I’m good at what I do in my day job because I suck as a prognosticator. Bayern Munich pummeled BMG today 5-1. They trail Borussia Dortmund by the slimmest of margins for first place in the Bundesliga. Both have 54 points, but Dortmund has a better goal differential [31 vs 29 for Bayern]. We have ourselves a title fight for once.
BMG’s defense came unglued today because Bayern were relentless on the attack from the opening whistle. With only one minute gone, Thomas Müller made a pass to Robert Lewandowski right in front of BMG’s goal. BMG keeper Yann Sommer deflected the shot wide, resulting in a Bayern corner kick. James Rodriguez took the kick, which Javi Martinez headed it in at the near corner. Bayern had the lead at two minutes. Nine minutes later Bayern struck again. Thomas Müller took a pass from Serge Gnabry. Both Müller and Lewandowski were running toward the goal. Müller connected, Sommer blocked it, but Müller followed through on the rebound and put it away. Bayern were up 2-0. BMG were a bit shell-shocked.
BMG halved Bayern’s lead at 38 minutes. After some fine passing on their left flank, BMG scored on a break when Thorgan Hazard beat Niklas Süle, passed the ball right between Süle’s legs to assist Lars Stindl. Bayern led 2-1, but it could have been much worse. Yann Sommer put in an outstanding performance before his defenders utterly collapsed around him. BMG’s defense didn’t have a clue today because Bayern were ruthless on the counterattack. BMG’s defenders were back on their heels the entire first half. They seemed totally unprepared for Bayern’s pace and aggressiveness.
Two minutes after halftime, Bayern struck again. BMG made yet another poor pass on defense, which Thiago intercepted. He delivered a nice, short forward pass to Lewandowski. He collected the ball, split two BMG defenders and put the ball past Sommer. Sommer had no chance of stopping this one, which was Lewandowski’s fourth shot on goal. Bayern led 3-1. The game was still in doubt as BMG gathered themselves and began to maintain possession equal with Bayern for the next 28 minutes. But at the 75th minute, disaster struck BMG. Bayern caught BMG unprepared yet again. Joshua Kimmich found Lewandowski with a perfect cross, but Lewandowski’s header flew straight into Sommer’s chest. Lewandowski couldn’t come up with the rebound cleanly, but neither could Sommer. BMG defender Nico Elvedi tried to clear the ball, but instead he sent the ball straight to a waiting Serge Gnabry. Gnabry buried it – Bayern lead 4-1. The game was effectively over at this point. Bayern coach Niko Kovacs started to substitute on younger players to give them some playing time.
As they say in the infomercials, “but wait, there’s more”. The game reached the 90-minute mark when Thorgan Hazard brought down Joshua Kimmich in the penalty area. On replay it looked like Kimmich slipped, but the referee awarded the penalty. Robert Lewandowski took the penalty and he didn’t miss. His second goal of the game ties him with Claudio Pizarro as the highest-scoring non-German in Bundesliga history. Game over – Bayern win 5-1.
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