From a team steeped in crisis with a sacked manager to a sexy pick for winning a historic treble, what a difference a couple months can make. Following today’s 2-0 victory over Augsburg, Bayern Munich maintained its four-point advantage at the top of the Bundesliga while celebrating the club’s 120th birthday in fine style (hence the special edition kits).
A sellout crowd of 75,000 at Allianz Arena had to wait until the 53rd minute for today’s opening goal, but it was a heavenly combination between Jérôme Boateng and Thomas Müller to get things going.
Thomas Muller's goal for @FCBayernUS, but this is all about the ball from Jerome Boateng pic.twitter.com/Tksij3ffyS
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 8, 2020
Augsburg made Bayern work for it, but the second was more dreamy combination play, this time between Serge Gnabry and Leon Goretzka.
This @FCBayernUS goal was a thing of beauty pic.twitter.com/M01RsfqDrS
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) March 8, 2020
Bayern's unbeaten streak in league play now stands at 11 matches. They’ve won 10 of those games with the only other result being a draw against RB Leipzig. Leipzig looked to be Bayern’s biggest challenger, but they’ve drawn two straight (and four of their last six) to fall to third in the table. Following a 2-1 victory over Gladbach, Erling Håland’s Borussia Dortmund is now second.
Bayern is also through to the semifinals of the DFB-Pokal, where they’ll play Eintracht Frankfurt at the Allianz Arena, and almost certainly through to the quarterfinals of the Champions League after defeating Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of their Round of 16 matchup. The return leg in Munich takes place on Wednesday, March 18.
