Bundesliga

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As luck would have it, Robert Lewandowski turned straight into the interview zone when the summary of the BVB game against Hoffenheim was on the screens. The former Dortmund looked on interested, but declined despite their 3: 3-draw and their own 3-1 win over Schalke 04 by no means in euphoria. "That's still five points," said the striker, who was involved in all three goals and on top of that had cracked his personal 100-goal mark in the home arena on Saturday night at 2-1 (27). In other words, at the moment nothing has been achieved yet.

"It was a nice week for us," said Bayern President Uli Hoeneß after the game. And she actually could not have done better: Dortmund lost their biggest rival in the Cup, they continued to work for Hertha BSC and obviously coped better with the 120-minute lesson during the week. While Dortmund gave a three-goal lead from the hand, the Bayern brought their lead towards the end in management mode on the stage. On top of that, they had already jumped to second place before the kick-off, because the Mönchengladbach players, who had tied points, lost so much.

Liverpool as an indicator

The Westphalian slip was used, and the resulting good news is: The championship has become more exciting again. But the Bavarians do not yet make a showdown, on the contrary. Even after the perfect week, they still miss a breast-out mentality.

Rather, one dealt afterwards in detail with their own mistakes. For what does it bring, if you have 70 percent possession of the ball, and the opponent still "comes to opportunities, although he is actually not in the game," as Joshua Kimmich put it? You spend so much effort, the opponent must operate no effort at all, but only use the mistakes.

This time a bad pass from James had initiated the interim compensation of the Schalke by the 18-year-old Ahmed Kutucu. "Schalke could not hurt us at all," Kimmich said. Individual mistakes are "the problem that runs through the whole season". His defense colleague David Alaba commented, "If the mistakes are so punished in such games, things will not get any easier in the next few weeks, we know that." It is clear who he meant: The Champions League duel with Liverpool (19 February, 21 clock, live ticker SPIEGEL ONLINE, TV: Sky), the ultimate yardstick for Bayern under their young coach Niko Kovac.

Lack of sovereignty

The fact that Bayern were mainly invited by an insecure opponent to score, may have kept the self-praise also small. So was the 1: 0 by slapstick own goal by Jeffrey Bruma (12) only the end of a hair-raising error chain for which the Bayern were little. Conversely, several mistakes of the Munich could easily be punished. Apart from the fast-paced wing play over Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry, who were once again among the best, the game moved on a manageable level.

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Bayern win over Schalke: One size too big

In addition to the place is the lack of sovereignty but almost more noticeable. Dortmund's weak phase does not interest him, said Bayern's sports director Hasan Salihamidzic. And much rather raged on a side-battle scene. First, he put out the performance Lewandowski, just to give himself a rough template for it, the Sky expert Didi Hamann spill. The former Bayern player had said about the Pole, he was "a problem" for the club. Salihamidzic spoke now, almost a week later, of a "campaign" against one of the best strikers in the world. "Lewandowski is not the problem of Bayern, Didi Hamann is the problem of Sky," he said.

Actually Salihamidzic did not have to talk about it anymore. Lewandowski's performance on the pitch had already done that.

Unclear return of Manuel Neuer

Secondly, the mystery of injury to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer raises the question of what it actually does to hide the exact diagnosis. Coach Niko Kovac even talked about "medical confidentiality" and "privacy" during the week. Neuer suspended his former club for the third time. On Saturday night he walked with his hands hidden in the jacket pockets to the stadium exit. "Bild" reported a "ski thumb", which, however, reveals little about the healing time.

No, there's nothing new about that, Salihamidzic claimed once again. But there was. Substitute Sven Ulreich said he expects Neuer to be back in the game at Augsburg next Friday. Whoever it will be: The Bavarians would love to win again just for the self-confidence in the Liverpool dress rehearsal. They have not yet succeeded in 2019.

Bayern Munich - Schalke 04 3: 1 (2: 1)
1: 0 Bruma (12th, own goal)
1: 1 Kutucu (25th)
2: 1 Lewandowski (27)
3: 1 Gnabry (57.)
Munich: Ulreich - Kimmich, Boateng, Hummels, Alaba - Thiago, Goretzka - Gnabry (89th Davies), James (78th Martínez), Coman (68th Ribéry) - Lewandowski
Schalke: Ferryman - Caligiuri, Sané, Bruma, Oczipka - Rudy (33rd Mascarell), Bentaleb - Serdar (54th Harit), Konoplyanka - Kutucu (73rd Uth), McKennie
Referee: Daniel Siebert
Spectators: 75,000 (sold out)
Yellow cards: Lewandowski - Caligiuri (5), Bruma