Bayern’s weekend team again proved they are anything but a weakened team, as a side showing eight changes from Tuesday’s cup semi-final brushed aside feeble Hannover with contemptuous ease on Saturday, extending the champions’ winning run to 13 straight games this year.
With so many players in such fine form, boss Jupp Heynckes now has the best possible sort of selection headache ahead of the biggest match of the season so far, Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Barcelona.
The 49,000 full house at the AWD Arena saw the visitors dominate from the off and take a 16th-minute lead when David Alaba pressurised Lars Stindl into an own goal. Captain for the day Franck Ribery doubled the score six minutes later, Mario Gomez adding a third before the end of a one-sided first half in which FCB also hit the woodwork twice.
Gomez completed his brace from a fine Jerome Boateng assist on the hour, before Claudio Pizarro netted the fifth with 20 minutes to go. In the last few minutes, Andre Hoffmann headed a consolation for the home side, but Pizarro restored the five-goal margin and rounded off the scoring with the very next move.
An astonishing 14th victory in 15 away fixtures means the new champions move onto 81 points, still 20 ahead of second-placed Dortmund and equalling the all-time Bundesliga record, which could well fall next weekend. The focus now turns to the mouth-watering meeting with Barça on Tuesday, before high-flying Freiburg visit Munich in the Bundesliga in a week’s time.
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