Werder Bremen’s winless Bundesliga run stretched to 12 games after they were beaten 3-0 by league leaders Bayern Munich, who extended a run of their own by avoiding defeat in a 20th successive top-flight away match.
After Dortmund’s big win on Friday night, there was an element of pressure on Bayern to re-establish their six-point cushion at the Bundesliga summit. Pressure is something Vincent Kompany’s men have become accustomed to handling throughout his near two-season reign so far though, and today started off in typical fashion when their early dominance was rewarded with a penalty.
Lennart Karl jinked his way into the area before being upended by Niklas Stark, and the effervescent Harry Kane assumed responsibility to fire home, with that the 14th spot-kick he’s scored this season.
He was soon on target again – just three minutes later in fact – and this time it wasn’t a penalty, but from much further out. He was quickest to a loose ball on the edge of the area and he took one touch to settle himself before firing home in the corner to double Bayern’s lead and score the 500th goal of his career.
Werder faced an enormous task to get back into the game at 2-0 down, but they almost made the task a little easier before the break when Felix Agu took matters into his own hands, driving at the heart of the Bayern defence before arrowing an effort inches wide of the post.
With the game all but wrapped up, Bayern would have been forgiven for taking their foot off the gas a little, but they continued their assault on the Werder goal after the restart.
Luis Diaz was the latest Bayern man to try his luck, but he could only tamely roll an effort into the hands of the grateful Mio Backhaus despite being left unmarked 12 yards from goal.
Any lingering comeback hopes for the hosts were extinguished 20 minutes from time when Leon Goretzka netted the pick of the bunch for Bayern, curling back across goal from the edge of the area and picking out the top corner.
The game was over as a contest from that point onwards, and Bayern simply toyed with Bremen in the closing stages as they were happy to keep the ball and see out a win which opened up a six-point gap at the summit once more.
Bremen remain inside the bottom three, and with their winless home league run now spanning six matches, it’s difficult to see how they turn their season around.
