Less than 10 minutes were left on the clock when Alphonso Davies and Leroy Sané combined to win the ball back in their own half. It was one of the many duels in this top-of-the-table clash against Eintracht Frankfurt, as FC Bayern continually suffocated the visitors with aggressive pressing and won possession. This time Sané played it straight to Jamal Musiala, who took it and immediately set off on a run.
With every step, the midfielder got quicker and quicker. It was almost as if the 21-year-old was suddenly being pulled towards the Frankfurt goal by a strong magnet. The first man in a white shirt who wanted to stand in his way was Rasmus Kristensen. The Danish international was wearing a white bandage following a painful aerial collision with Thomas Müller midway through the first half. A double dummy from Musiala was too much for him – Kristensen turned, lurched. And the attacker was already past him. Ansgar Knauff came from the right to the aid of the flailing Kristensen. Again Musiala deployed body swerves – while Knauff was battling dizziness, Kristensen used it to catch up. The Frankfurt defender struck Musiala in the back of the knee and also got a bit of the ball, which subsequently bounced off Musiala’s heel. Musiala also fell briefly to his knees after the challenge from Kristensen, but immediately got back on his feet. He used the next moment of confusion to fire a powerful left-footed finish under Kevin Trapp in the Frankfurt goal and into the far corner – 3-0, three points in the bag. A goal almost as beautiful as if it had been drawn in watercolour.
“The effort, the enthusiasm – it was all there,” commented Vincent Kompany afterwards. “We just played very, very well today.” The move for the third goal – from the aggressive, joint effort to win the ball to the solo run and finish – was a reflection of the match and the analysis of the head coach. And Kompany wasn’t the only one impressed. “We saw a very impressive performance from our team,” said president Herbert Hainer. “It was a convincing win and the margin was also deserved in my opinion.” CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen was also pleased: “We saw really good football today and it was a joy.”
Only on a par for 15 minutes
However, it took a quarter of an hour from kick-off before the joy arrived. During that time, Eintracht played with the courage of a team in third place, who are the only side so far in this Bundesliga campaign to have prevented a Bayern lead from resulting in a Bayern win. In the reverse fixture in Hesse, the Eagles fought back from 1-0 down to lead 2-1 and then from 3-2 down to draw 3-3. “We knew it was going to be a difficult away match against, in my view, the best team in Germany,” said Frankfurt’s Ansgar Knauff. “In the end, Bayern's brutal quality prevailed.”
Belated lead
Despite Bayern increasingly gaining the upper hand after 15 minutes and creating a number of good chances, it wasn’t until first-half stoppage time that the opening goal came. Before Musiala played a fine through pass into Sané into the eighteen-yard box and he squared it to Michael Olise, Bayern had been too laborious in front of the visitors’ goal. Olise coolly slotted the ball in – and the hosts were able to take a lead into the dressing room as a reward for their dominance.
“It wasn't all bad,” said visiting goalkeeper Trapp, who referred in particular to a good chance for Hugo Ekitiké after just six minutes, “but Bayern have a quality that you can't always defend against, and they ruthlessly exploit every opportunity. It's clear that Bayern are an absolutely top team, the benchmark.” As the game wore on, lapses of concentration crept in for Eintracht, provoked by Bayern’s outstanding pressing on the day.
“The extra day helped us – the two extra training days, the rest – you could see that straight away today,” said Kompany. “We just played very well today, we had our chances.” And his team were clinical in taking them. Hiroki Ito, one of six changes to the starting line-up from the Champions League play-off against Celtic, was in the right place from a corner to volley into the empty net just after the hour mark. That was followed by Musiala’s decisive dance, before substitute Serge Gnabry put the icing on the cake in added time with a fourth goal.
‘Super Bayern, super Bayern’
“We deserved to win 4-0 and played with high intensity,” said the lively Müller, who started up front in place of Harry Kane. “We've stayed calm and focused on our goal: beating the third-placed team in the Bundesliga at home. We did that,” added board member for sport Max Eberl. And the Südkurve celebrated a successful Sunday evening with the popular chant of “Super Bayern, super Bayern, hey hey”.
Bayern have another big match already this Friday with a trip to VfB Stuttgart. In defence, three consecutive clean sheets in the Bundesliga, 303 minutes without conceding, offer encouragement. In attack, an exhibition display with four goals against the team in third. And overall, the 58 points collected, which represent Bayern's best Bundesliga season for seven years. But Kompany summarised the most important point once more: "Now we go calmly into the next one," said the head coach. Strength lies in calm – until the next match. "We want to win again there."
The reaction to the home win over Frankfurt:
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