Bayern Munich sent a warning Real Madrid's way with a 5-2 win over Werder Bremen at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Despite going behind twice to goals from Theodor Gebre Selassie and Aaron Hunt, canceled out by Franck Ribery and Claudio Pizarro respectively, Bayern cruised to an easy victory as they warmed up in style for the second leg of their Champions League semi-final in midweek.
Pizarro added Bayern's third before Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben completed the rout, with Bayern having put 12 goals past Bremen home and away this season.
Bayern coach Pep Guardiola made changes to the side who were beaten 1-0 by Real in midweek, giving a rest to Robben, Philipp Lahm and Mario Mandzukic in view of the second leg with the Spaniards on Tuesday.
Like in recent games when he had rotated his side, he saw his team fall behind in the same way they conceded to Karim Benzema on Wednesday - on the counter-attack.
Cedrick Makiadi threaded the ball through to Gebre Selassie, who got his head down and beat Manuel Neuer with a powerful shot before David Alaba could get in a challenge.
Bayern's response came from Ribery, who was criticized for his performance in Spain but provided the answer from Pizarro's pass as he threaded the ball through the legs of Raphael Wolf.
Pizarro seemed to have given Bayern the lead when he lifted his shot past Sebastian Prodl, but an acrobatic clearance on the line from Clemens Fritz, a day after signing a new one-year contract, kept Bremen on terms.
Bremen then regained the lead when a sweeping ball from Franco Di Santo picked out Hunt, who stepped inside Jerome Boateng and slid his shot past Neuer, who did not seem too concerned to have conceded again.
Indeed, Neuer did not seem to be taking things all that seriously and he was nearly caught in possession by Di Santo before a goal from Santiago Garcia was ruled out for offside from the resulting corner.
Bayern leveled again in the 53rd minute with Pizarro scoring one of the easiest of his 173 Bundesliga goals, meeting Thomas Muller's header from a matter of inches out.
It was Pizarro who put Bayern in front four minutes later after Alaba's cross gave him goal number 174 in the top flight of German football.
A cross from the right from substitute Lahm then met Schweinsteiger hanging in the air to head in Bayern's fourth from eight yards out.
Pizarro missed a chance for his hat-trick from Muller's cross, heading over from two yards out, but Robben completed the scoring with his first involvement after springing from the bench, curling a low shot into the bottom left-hand corner.
