FC Bayern set the tone for year's opening Bundesliga game

The break was indeed a short one. Just 17 days had passed since the 5-1 win over RB Leipzig in the last Bundesliga home game of 2024, and FC Bayern were already heading into their first warm-up game of 2025, 170 kilometres south-east of Munich, where a Champions League side in Red Bull Salzburg, fifth in the Austrian Bundesliga, awaited the German record champions. “We only have one friendly match, which is a bit different than usual,” said sporting director Christoph Freund: “The break wasn't that long, we don't want to lose our rhythm, and we want to get into a good rhythm for Saturday.” His team did that more than well in the 6-0 win. At times, the 26,107 spectators in the stadium and the many fans in front of the TV – FC Bayern TV PLUS broadcasted exclusively live from Salzburg – witnessed a difference in class, especially in the first half.

Dier already practising for Gladbach 

Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany refrained from any experiments and only made two changes to his team compared to the last Bundesliga match at the end of December, as Thomas Müller came in for Jamal Musiala, who was ill, and Dayot Upamecano was replaced by Eric Dier. And there was good reason for the latter, with the France international set to miss the new year's kick-off in Mönchengladbach on Saturday evening having picked up his fifth yellow card of the season. Manuel Neuer, João Palhinha, Hiroki Ito, Sacha Boey, Serge Gnabry, Josip Stanišič, Sven Ulreich and Tarek Buchmann were also missing from the squad through injury or illness.

Back up to speed in no time

The Bundesliga leaders didn't need any time to settle in after Christmas and New Year. The game was only 10 minutes old when Dier headed the visitors into the lead with the very first opportunity following a corner. Bayern dominated their opponents at will, with new coach and ex-Bochum boss Thomas Letsch in the dugout for the first time. Bayern pressed, Bayern combined, Bayern dictated the tempo and the direction - 74 percent possession spoke for itself.

“It was good for fitness, we didn't have a long break and we didn't feel that the team needed a long time at the start to look good again,” said a delighted Kompany. FC Bayern TV PLUS pundit Nils Petersen was also impressed: “The spirit, the hunger and the will – I'm impressed by all that,” admitted the ex-Bayern player.

Müller in familiar Müller style

In short, FC Bayern played as if there had never been a short break. And so it came as little surprise that Müller scored to make it 2-0 in familiar Müller style. After the club's record appearance holder had won the ball, Michael Olise passed to Harry Kane, whose shot caused problems for Austria international goalkeeper Alexander Schlager. Müller was then on hand to force the ball over the goal line.

Just five minutes later, the one-sided encounter was already decided when Olise intercepted a pass out from keeper Schlager and slotted the ball into the empty Salzburg goal.

Very little to criticise

“We got into our game well straight away,” said a happy Konrad Laimer, back at his former club. “We put in a confident performance over 90 minutes, scored the goals – with that said, we could have done one or two things a bit better.”

However, there really wasn't much to criticise about the visitors' dominant play up to that point, and the statistics also spoke for themselves: 5-1 shots on goal, 20 touches in the opposition penalty area, 8-0 corner kicks – it's hard to be more dominant. It also left opposition boss Letsch disappointed: “Of course we all expected it to be different. Bayern were two classes above us in every respect. The game showed, in a tough way, that we still have a lot of work to do. Nevertheless, we are talking about Bayern Munich – a team that not only has the ambition to become champions of Germany but also win the Champions League and has fierce quality.’

Offensive wind not dying down

And even though the visitors from Munich made five substitutions after 45 minutes, the attacking wind did not die down. Bayern were celebrating again just 164 seconds after the restart. Following a pass from Laimer, Olise lobbed the ball past substitute Janis Blaswich into the home goal to make it 4-0. Salzburg had changed all 11 men after the break.

Now led by Joshua Kimmich with the captain's armband, Bayern knew no mercy against the Austrians. As against Leipzig, Kimmich dared to take a powerful long-range shot, which again ended up in the net – but this time it was deflected for 5-0. And when Salzburg did manage to break forward, Bayern were either fortunate that the ball went wide, as in the first half, or that Daniel Peretz reacted superbly.

As the game wore on, both coaches continued to rotate their players, making the flow of the game increasingly slow. However, this did nothing to change Bayern's overwhelming superiority – after all, Salzburg had their first corner after 75 minutes, but it came to nothing.

Alongside Max Schmitt between the sticks, three other FC Bayern reserve team players made their professional debuts in Grayson Dettoni, Jonah Kusi-Asare and Michael Scott. Kingsley Coman took over the captain's armband for the final minutes and was able to celebrate Jonathan Asp Jensen's final goal as the 18-year-old Dane rounded off the half-dozen.

“We won, that's always good. And nobody was injured, that's the most important thing,” said a satisfied Kompany, looking ahead to the 2025 Bundesliga opener: “We're now looking forward to the Bundesliga again.”

Read all the reaction to the friendly in Salzburg: