Bayern Munich flex giant muscles with bruising win over Cologne
Bayern Munich raced out to a quick 2-0 lead over Cologne inside ten minutes en route to a 4-1 victory on Friday night in the Bundesliga. Bayern's fourth straight win provisionally widened their gap on second-placed Wolfsburg to 11 points.
Josep Guardiola fielded a very attacking-minded lineup against predictably cautious visitors, with Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Thomas Mueller and Mario Goetze all starting behind Robert Lewandowski in a 4-1-4-1 formation. It didn't take long for the Bayern manager's strategy to bear fruit.
''It was a funny game,'' Robben said. ''We got off to a great start but they got back into the match and played really well. Manuel made some great saves and really brought us victory. The saves he made were incredible.''
Providing the home fans with the perfect present for the club's 115th birthday celebration, Schweinsteiger headed in a Robben corner after just three minutes. Seven minutes later, Ribery cut inside from the left wing and struck a well-placed finish with his right foot past Timo Horn to double their lead.
Bayern didn't relent with their pressure, frustrating Cologne with free-flowing football that amounted to over 70% possession for the game. Indeed, Horn prevented an even bigger deficit with two fine saves on Lewandowski (1', 29') and another on Robben (4') in the first half.
One moment of inattention was all Cologne needed to get back into the game, however. Anthony Ujah provided a lifeline on the final touch of the half, a header that beat Neuer from close range for his eighth goal of the season.
Cologne came out a different, braver side in the second half, making for an up-and-down affair. Ujah almost equalized in the 58th after a great cross from Slawomir Peszko, but slightly mishit his attempt allowing Neuer to make the save. On the other side, Bayern found themselves on a two-on-one counter-attack just a minute later, but Robben picked the wrong option and his weak lay-off to Lewandowski was cleared away.
Robben would make up for his mistake just ten minutes later and restored Bayern's two-goal lead. Ribery, who terrorized Cologne right back Brecko time and again, provided a good service to the far post where the Dutchman placed a header into the opposite corner for his seventh goal in the past five games.
The game was then put out of reach in the 76th as Robben chipped Horn on another counter-attack and into the path of Lewandowski, who just had to stick his chest out to guide the ball over the line. It was Bayern's 18th goal in their past three Bundesliga games, giving them 63 through 23 matchdays. They remain on pace to break the all-time single season goals record (101), which Bayern set in 1971-72.
“I’m happy," a delighted Guardiola said after the match. "We’ve beaten the second-best away team in the league and scored four goals, which is very, very difficult against these opponents. We started well, but we lost control after a while. Once Arjen had made it 3-1 it was a completely different game again. We recovered our dominance. But we won today because Manu made two outstanding saves.”
Relegation-threatened Cologne, meanwhile, are winless in their past five games.
“We showed too much respect at the start, but we fought our way back into it after going two goals down," Cologne manager Peter Stoger admitted after his side's defeat. "We almost equalized in the second half but we weren’t up against any old keeper, that was Manuel Neuer. He made two unbelievable reaction saves. We’re not happy, but it was a decent overall display.”
