Fifth-placed Mainz held up the Bayern steamroller for 40 minutes on Saturday with disciplined and energetic defending, but the patient league leaders struck to deadly effect when their chance came and comfortably made it 16 wins from 20 Bundesliga fixtures this term.
The boisterous 34,000 full house at the Coface Arena watched an engrossing first half in which Jupp Heynckes’ men saw more of the ball but Thomas Tuchel’s lively troops generally held their own. That changed four minutes from the break when Toni Kroos brilliantly released Thomas Müller to open the scoring and hand FCB a crucial half-time lead.
With the home side’s resistance ebbing away, Mario Mandzukic doubled the lead five minutes into the second half after great work from David Alaba, before the towering Croat added the third and wrapped up the points seven minutes later with a header from Philipp Lahm’s cross.
The result takes Bayern onto 51 points from 20 matches and hands Heynckes’ men a healthy 14-point overnight lead in the standings, with second-placed Bayer Leverkusen and third-placed Dortmund potentially taking points off each other when they meet on Sunday afternoon. The Bavarians are back in action at home to Schalke next Saturday evening.
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