Bayern passed their first true examination of the mid-season period away to second division high-flyers Kaiserslautern on Monday night, goals from Luca Toni and Landon Donovan separating two lively teams in front of a typically boisterous 42,604 crowd at the Fritz-Walter-Stadion.
The old rivals, joint top of their respective tables at Christmas, served up an engrossing 90 minutes played at a terrific pace for a friendly, well in keeping with epic Bundesliga and European battles of the past in the intimidating surroundings of the fabled Betzenberg stadium.
A total of four bookings and the odd tasty challenge reflected the serious character of the clash, a thoroughly useful test as Bayern move into fine-tuning mode ahead of the second half of the campaign.
Full-strength line-up
In the injury-enforced absence of Tim Borowski, wunderkind Toni Kroos and Cologne-bound Lukas Podolski, the side sent out by FCB coach Jürgen Klinsmann had the look of the line-up likely to start next Tuesday’s first competitive fixture since the winter break, a DFB Cup Round of 16 tie away to VfB Stuttgart.
Michael Rensing took up his usual position between the sticks, behind a defence comprising Philipp Lahm, Lucio, Martin Demichelis and Christian Lell, covering for Massimo Oddo with the Italian preparing to serve a three-match Bundesliga ban.
Topics of this article