BAYERN MUNICH CAN secure a 10th straight Bundesliga title next weekend after they bounced back from their Champions League exit in midweek with a 3-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday.
An own goal by Bielefeld defender Jacob Laursen and strikes by Serge Gnabry and Jamal Musiala saw Bayern move nine points clear in the table.
There are four games left and Bayern can secure the title by beating second-placed Borussia Dortmund in next Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash in Munich.
Bayern returned to winning ways five days after conceding a last-gasp equaliser at home to Villarreal to crash out of the Champions League with a 2-1 aggregate defeat in the quarter-finals.
Bayern were ahead after less than 10 minutes in Bielefeld when a Joshua Kimmich pass found its way to Robert Lewandowski, who got a touch before Laursen helped it over the line.
Bayern had a let-off when Japan midfielder Masaya Okugawa clipped the ball over Dayot Upamecano before firing past Manuel Neuer, but the goal was ruled offside.
Just before half-time, Bielefeld midfielder Fabian Kunze was stretchered off after being elbowed in the head by Bayern’s Tanguy Nianzou, who was booked for the challenge.
It was Bielefeld’s third serious head injury in recent weeks.
In the seventh minute of first-half stoppage time, Bayern doubled their lead when Gnabry got on the end of another Kimmich pass to tap home.
Bielefeld kept searching for a goal to get back into the game after the break, but Bayern substitute Musiala secured the points with a late third.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed