Clinical & ruthless: Hard work paying off for two-goal Sané

Leroy Sané didn’t want to talk too extensively about his outstanding performance after full time of the 3-2 win at home to FC St. Pauli. Instead, when asked about his fourth brace in an FC Bayern shirt, the 30-year winger put the emphasis on the team. “All in all it was a very good display after an international break, and we’re all glad we took the three points at home,” he said. Sané had every reason to talk about it, having twice found himself all alone in front of visiting keeper Nikola Vasilj on the afternoon, both times showing the coolness to thump the ball into the net and delight the fans inside the sold-out Allianz Arena.

Sané crowns two splendid attacks

Instead, Bayern’s number 10, who was undoubtedly the match-winner in the game against the side 15th in the table, focused on his team's performance. His two goals after the break made the difference in the end – and they were the product of two fine moves. The playful Bavarians combined out of their own half with pace, directness and one touch into the attacking third, where the bustling winger finished with ice-cold precision.

Freund: ‘He’s very hardworking and is getting the rewards’

With 53 minutes on the clock, a long goal kick from Jonas Urbig found the head of Harry Kane, who laid off to Michael Olise on the halfway line. The Frenchman saw his attacking partner starting a run down the left side and played the ball on with a volley. Sané looked up into the middle – and saw no team-mates in space. He controlled the ball with his chest, eyed up St. Pauli netminder Vasilj and drove it decisively into the bottom right corner. Clinical and determined, a reflection of his display on Saturday and of his overall form in recent weeks.

The attacker previously netted a brace in the 5-0 win at home to Hoffenheim in mid-January. In the 12 Bundesliga matches so far in 2025, Sané has been directly involved in nine goals (six goals, three assists), and by the end of March he’s already racked up more direct goal involvements than he did in the whole of 2024. Only team-mate Kane has registered more goal contributions in the whole league this year. “He’s very hardworking and is getting the rewards with goals,” acknowledged sporting director Christoph Freund. The German international also made the most sprints of all the players on the field on Saturday (43). “He’s very busy and works hard for the team. He pleased me a lot,” added Freund.

Nine Bundesliga goals – Sané’s personal best

Sané’s second strike in the 71st minute followed a similar pattern to the first. Kane went through after a one-two with Olise, drew two defenders towards him and picked out the run of Sané, who again kept his cool and slotted into the bottom right. With that he not only settled the contest, but also bagged his fourth brace in his 193rd Bundesliga appearance for the Reds and increased his goals tally for this season to nine – he’s never managed that many before in a single league campaign. Another sign of how important Sané is to Bayern’s attacking play these days.

The analysis of the match against FC St. Pauli:

Olise was also at the double at the Allianz Arena, setting up both the opener for Kane (17’) and Sané’s first goal. Having also provided two assists in the 5-0 triumph at Werder Bremen in September, the French summer signing repeated the feat against St. Pauli. It takes the 23-year-old onto nine assists, and he could well move ahead of Bayer Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz in this statistic, who leads the way with 10 assists but is currently injured.

The fact that Bayern managed to run down the clock, despite two setbacks in the closing minutes – first Hiroki Ito’s injury and then St. Pauli’s second goal – is also down to the team, as Sané highlighted. “It was a bit tight towards the end because we were reduced to ten men,” said the winger, before looking ahead: “We must give it 100 percent in every match and win our games. I think that also helps generally to stay in a rhythm.”

Staying focused – those were the key words from Sané for the remainder of the season, which has some big challenges in store for the German record champions.

The reaction to the match against FC St. Pauli: