ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI AND Thomas Mueller both scored twice as Bayern Munich banished their early-season blues with a thumping 4-1 win over Bundesliga minnows Arminia Bielefeld on Saturday after a “crazy” first half.
Treble winners Bayern started the day in mid-table following a shock defeat to Hoffenheim last month, but victory in Bielefeld was enough to propel them back up to second place.
The champions burst out of the blocks and had an early penalty appeal turned down before Mueller bundled in the opener on eight minutes.
Lewandowski doubled the lead shortly afterwards, smashing the ball in from the edge of the area after a sharp cross from Leon Goretzka.
The Poland striker linked up with Mueller to make it 3-0 just before half-time, and returned the favour after the break with a pinpoint cross to set up Mueller’s second.
“The first 45 minutes were crazy, we played really well. We knew that the first game after the international break would be really important,” Lewandowski told Sky.
Japan winger Ritsu Doan then pulled one back for Bielefeld on the break, the PSV Eindhoven loanee netting his first Bundesliga goal since moving to Germany in the summer.
Yet despite a late red card for Corentin Tolisso, Bayern were untroubled in the final stages and can now turn their attention to Wednesday’s Champions League opener against Atletico Madrid.
Hansi Flick’s side now sit level on points with third-placed Borussia Dortmund, who snatched a late 1-0 win at Hoffenheim earlier on Saturday.
Dortmund, who like Bayern had already lost one game this season, looked set to drop further points before Erling Haaland and Marco Reus came off the bench in the second half to breathe new life into a blunt performance.
Haaland, 20, surged forward on the break to set up Reus with a tap-in and snatch Dortmund’s first away victory over Hoffenheim in eight years.
“They’ve always made it difficult for us here in recent years. We didn’t have many good chances in the first half and we knew we needed to create more in the second half,” the goalscorer told Sky.
Yussuf Poulsen for Leipzig v Augsburg. Ding, and I cannot stress this enough, dong. pic.twitter.com/ZBY14eCaIL
— Richie McCormack (@RichieMcCormack) October 17, 2020
Haaland was initially rested after he played three times for Norway in the previous two weeks, prompting criticism of the busy international schedule.
“At Dortmund, we are used to having a lot of midweek games at this stage of the season. The schedule is a bit more hectic this year, so we have to look after ourselves,” said Reus, after slotting Haaland’s square pass into the open net to score his first goal since February.
Dortmund and Bayern now sit one point behind league leaders RB Leipzig, who held onto top spot with a 2-0 win against surprise high-fliers Augsburg.
Angelino headed Leipzig in front on the stroke of half-time to score his second goal in two games, before Yussuf Poulsen doubled the lead with a sumptuous volley on 66 minutes.
“These are the games you need to win if you want to land in the top four,” Leipzig coach Julian Nagelsmann told Sky.
Elsewhere, Lucas Alario’s first half header sealed a 1-0 win for Bayer Leverkusen and extended second-from-bottom Mainz’s miserable run to four defeats in four games.
Promoted side Stuttgart continued their good start to the season, as Marc-Oliver Kempf and Gonzalo Castro fired them to a 2-0 win away to Hertha Berlin, while Werder Bremen held Freiburg to a 1-1 draw in the south west.
Freiburg took the lead early on through Philipp Lienhart and had a second goal ruled out for offside before Bremen’s Niclas Fuellkrug levelled the scores from the penalty spot.
United are absolutely muck!!!
I agree, Daithi, and I’m a ManU fan. All that’s been holding them together was Ferguson. It’ll take a while to pick themselves up. Hope Van Gaal is given enough time!
Yeah, I think it’s a while off till they get themselves together!! Rooney was savagely bad!! Mata was poor. Evans, young, all were garbage!!
That’ll be two points dropped for Burnley come the end of season relegation battle. Bad result. Should be beating the likes of muck like United!
Poor result for Burnley. Need to be beating their relegation rivals at home to have a chance of staying up!
Burnley started very well against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago but were well beaten eventually – could well be something similar today. Anything less will be disastrous for Utd.
Noticed that Burnley’s starting 11 is entirely British – something very rare nowadays
I wouldn’t have Evans in my local pub team.
What’s worse is we let Pique go because we thought he was the next big thing!
Although you never know a prolonged run in the first team may see him come good.
Ah now, with all the money he has he’d surely pay for a few rounds
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
There’s an echo in here.
And United fans with the usual ‘welcome to the biggest club in the world’ deluded
Good chance for united to pick up 3 points against the team backed for relegation…but I still worry about the back 3 (jones, Evans and blackett) I think this game is a perfect chance for jutciewicz (sorry, I can’t spell it) and ings to prove themselves against a fairly lacklustre defense
Relegation 6 pointer !!!
Utd done very well to get the draw that’s 2 points in the bag WOW!!!!
Could be the point that saves United from relegation come next May.
A dreadful performance by Utd – as bad as anything that they produced last season. 2 pts from 3 games against the giants of Swansea, Sunderland and Burnley. Hard to see them finish in the Top 6, could be much lower than last season if they don’t cop on soon.
It’s early days yet but they’d want to get their shit in gear sharpish!
It would be plain stupid to play Evans again – after his dire performance against MK Dons.
Time for him to move on….
Great squad player!
Poor mans john o Shea he is. O Shea could play in goal
Yoda are you?
I have a wee theory about to United’s poor start to the season so far, which I have yet to see written anywhere (I’m open to correction).
Players who have been at United for years appear to be lacking in confidence, particularly central midfielders and defenders.
I reckon that boasting about having so much to spend on new players was bad enough, but the worst idea was identifying areas we need to strengthen and then not having them strengthened by the start of the season!
Everybody knows we need a proper central defensive midfielder like Keane was. Hence all the hype about Vidal. Everybody also knows the likes of Evans and Jones are prone to being rubbish so we need to strengthen there too, hence the hype about Blind, Rojo, and Shaw. Our wingers have been singled out as blunt instruments, hence the long running saga over DiMaria.
Such speculation must have an impact on the egos of the existing players. Imagine playing in any of these positions over these past few weeks, knowing that the club are actively trying to find a better player in your position! Your confidence would be shot, especially when you’re (by association) being partly blamed for the worst season United have had in ages!! Most of us agree that there is a lot of dead wood still at United, but I’m sure they know who they are too.
I reckon these kinds of big transfers should ideally be completed before the season starts and leave the time between gameweek 1 and Deadline Day to strengthen the squad!
True Man Utd players would relish the competition.
Does Ronaldo ever accept that anybody is better than him?
In any professional job the bottom 10percent of performers should always be moved on!
True class always finds another level, and manages to raise their game.
Time to get rid of the passengers at United and keep the winners!
I agree. But shouldn’t they be moved on before the season starts? I suppose the World Cup has had a big impact on Uniteds ability to do that this year…
Most definitely, a period if transition should be just that!
Vidic should have never been allowed to go before a high class centre back was found.
Your talking about a club that still hasn’t replaced Keane or Scholes!
Spot on. And they hail Carrick as the Messiah when all he can do is pass backwards!!
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!
“They all”? Who? His kids,never heard anyone say that about carrick.
Mainly the English media in fairness. Christ lads, this is feckin desperate stuff.
Good result for united.
Sean Dyche has to go. Poor result for Burnley :):):)
Di Maria looking great so far. Utterly ridiculous decision by Real to offload him.
For 60 odd million, great business by Madrid. Good player in fairness but Madrid tend to make few mistakes when selling players. Remember the furore when they sold Ozil for 50 million. Probably worth 20 now
Pure muck how is Anderson still getting a game
Bring back Moyes.
Just not creating enough chances. A team like burnley shouldn’t be coping as easy as they are at the moment.
Come on. No offemcr but its burnley and we kept a clean sheet but when we cant find a goal with 4 world class attackers it has to be the tactics #352is532
Should’ve won that,more injuries too. So much for 6 easy games to start.
Did not see game, too early here in Canada for me…. No such thing as easy games I would guess these days. Watching Man City game though, when is a blatant penalty not a penalty for smaller clubs though? Right in front of Ref and assistant too…. Stoke robbed……
We had a peno claim too with a few to go,handball in the box,I’m not even sure what’s a ball to hand/hand ball is anymore.
3-1 Utd for me.
Burnley 3-1 Utd?
2 – 0 to Burnley.
ManU’s glory days will not recommence for some years.
It takes a while to completely rebuild a team.
The foundations of the last ones were home grown.
Buying random players on the market is a lot more difficult as – who knows if they’ll gel.
You forgot your “mid table team” gem.
So easy to cancel United out.
No leader(s) or class….
The most scary statistic from this morning is that diMaria cost more than every player that has ever played for Burnley in its 100+ year history added together. And by some margin.
Can’t believe West Ham signed Song from Barca…..he’d be perfect for Utd
If MU now have a lengthy injury list I feel a bit sorry for van Gaal, it’s been hard enough anyway. Now for red thumbs, come on the blues.
Looks like a Oreo for each player in the Sky Sports pic!