Bayern beat Salzburg in friendly

FC Bayern enjoyed a successful dress rehearsal for the second half of the season when they beat Red Bull Salzburg 5-0 on Tuesday. Hiroki Ito handed Bayern the lead shortly before half-time. Lennart Karl and Felipe Chávez closed out the meeting midway through the second half, with Karl and Tom Bischof adding gloss to the scoreline in the closing stages. Boss Vincent Kompany handed playing time to a number of young talents. The Bavarians will be back in action on Sunday when they entertain Wolfsburg in the first competitive match of the year. 

Ito opens

It was an up-tempo first half with chances at both ends. Ito miscued and Salzburg’s Sota Kitano fired wide, with Michael Olise drawing a fine save from keeper Alexander Schlager. Wisdom Mike saw an effort blocked and aimed too far before Salzburg upped the ante. Kitano tested Jonas Urbig and saw another effort blocked, with David Santos clearing Edmund Baidoo’s follow-up off the line.

Kitano hit the side-netting and the alert Urbig beat Baidoo to a pass. Harry Kane saw a shot saved, but Bayern took the lead on the stroke of half-time when the hosts cleared the ball only as far as Ito, whose volley found the net with the help of a deflection.

Second-half dominance

Both coaches comprehensively shuffled their decks at half-time and Bayern were in the driving seat now. Salzburg keeper Christian Zawieschitzky saved from Deniz Ofli, Karl sidestepped an opponent but was denied and Laimer aimed too high. Serge Gnabry had a shot parried, with Chávez volleying the rebound over.

Chávez’ pinpoint pass invited Karl to double the advantage. Munich soon put the game to bed, with Karl squaring for Chávez to knock it over the line. Salzburg almost replied immediately, Kerim Alajbegovic’ free-kick hitting the crossbar. Díaz’ fine cross found Karl at the far stick, the youngster rounding off his brace. Díaz shone as provider again when his chip invited Bischof to seal the final scoreline.