Four for Gomez as Bayern stride into quarters

Mario Gomez followed up a weekend hat-trick with a stunning four-goal haul as rampant Bayern brushed aside outclassed Basel to ease into the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday night. The Swiss league leaders fought gamely but wilted horribly in the face of Munich’s controlled aggression and deadly finishing, as the home side ran out 7-1 winners on aggregate after their biggest-ever win in European competition.

The 66,000 full house at the Allianz Arena saw Jupp Heynckes’ men lay siege to the Basel goal from the off and take a tenth-minute lead through Arjen Robben, after which only highly-rated Basel keeper Yann Sommer stood between the home side and a deluge of goals in the first half-hour. Basel appeared to have gained a toehold in the match with the interval approaching, but Bayern struck to deadly effect in the three minutes before the break as Thomas Müller and Gomez made the aggregate lead 3-1.

Gomez, ably assisted on all three occasions by the effervescent Franck Ribery, then rattled in three goals in just over quarter of an hour after the restart to turn a straightforward victory into a rout, before Robben skipped through the disconsolate Basel defence to ice the cake before the end of a hugely satisfactory evening for the Bundesliga giants

The result sees Munich safely into the draw for the last eight of Europe’s elite club competition, with the Bavarians next in Bundesliga action on Saturday 17 March away to struggling Hertha Berlin.