BERLIN: Champions Bayern Munich crushed Werder Bremen 6-0 in the Bundesliga yesterday to protect their four-point lead at the top as last season’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund continued their poor run with a 2-1 loss at Cologne.
Fellow Champions League participants Bayer Leverkusen spectacularly imploded, giving up a 3-0 halftime lead to draw 3-3 against troubled VfB Stuttgart.
With winger Franck Ribery making his comeback as a substitute on the hour, league leaders Bayern were in complete control with Philipp Lahm and Xabi Alonso giving them an early two-goal cushion.
Werder were unable to counter the Bavarian attacks and a 43rd-minute penalty from Thomas Mueller and Mario Goetze’s shot two minutes later killed off the game before halftime.
Lahm got his second goal for his first brace in 321 league games and Goetze added another in the second half to lift Bayern to 20 points, four ahead of Borussia Moenchengladbach, who eased past Hanover 96 3-0 with two goals from forward Max Kruse.
“It is usually a bit difficult coming back from an international break but we played really well,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola told reporters.
“We now have three more points and can focus on our Champions League game (against Roma on Tuesday).”
It was a different story for Dortmund, who despite having Ilkay Guendogan back after more than 17 months out with a back injury, lost 2-1 at Cologne for their fifth defeat in eight league matches.
Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller gifted their opponents the winner with a failed clearance in the 74th minute that allowed Simon Zoller to score, after the visitors had equalised through Ciro Immobile early in the second half.
With Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan also back from injuries, Dortmund wanted to set a marker for the rest of the season. Instead they suffered their third successive league loss.
“We spilled our own soup again,” Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp told reporters.
“In attack we were not focused enough, in the back we were lacking concentration. That led to two goals and that is why we are still on just seven points and have to deal with this situation now,” he added.
Dortmund, who travel to Galatasaray in the Champions League next week, dropped to 14th on seven points from eight games. They are now just three points above bottom club Bremen.
Leverkusen looked set for an easy afternoon after two goals from South Korea’s Son Heung-min and another from Germany international Karim Bellarabi gave them a comfortable lead.
Yet they inexplicably lost focus after the break with Timo Werner, Florian Klein and Martin Harnik scoring at 10-minute intervals for the hosts with Leverkusen’s defence in tatters.
VfL Wolfsburg kept up their good form to climb to fourth on 14 points with a 2-1 win at Freiburg.
Today, Hamburg take on Hoffenheim and Paderborn paly Eintracht Frankfurt. AFP
