It was quiet on the sidelines, unusually quiet.

No spontaneous calls to the square, no exuberant winner poses, no wild jumping back and forth.

There would have been a couple of opportunities for those in charge at the FC Bayern bench on this Champions League evening to get out of himself.

But it wasn't the spirited head coach Julian Nagelsmann on the sidelines, who had to stay in the hotel bed because of a flu, but his reluctant assistant Dino Toppmöller. 

The team of the German record champions doesn't seem to care who is sitting, standing or jumping out there anyway.

It just works right now.

"It was a great evening for us," said captain Manuel Neuer after the 4-0 win at Benfica Lisbon.

Once again, because so far this season there have only been great evenings with lots of goals in the Champions League.

With nine points and a flawless record of 12: 0 goals after three games, Munich got off to a better start in the premier class than ever in the club's history and the qualification for the round of 16 after half of the group stage. 

Radio contact in the second half

Perhaps the feverish nail man in his hotel bed occasionally got a little hotter, especially in the first 45 minutes when Munich scored two goals that were denied and missed a few good chances. "We'd have been on the offensive," admitted Leroy Sané, "a tad better to finish."

The opponent, however, too. Benfica managed to put "a few pinpricks", as the former Dortmund player Julian Weigl described the not entirely harmless counterattack of his team. On television, the sick nail man had to find out that the remaining defense, on which he attaches so much importance, does not always work. Just like the radio contact that Toppmöller's colleague Xaver Zembrod, the other assistant trainer, was supposed to keep to the boss through the analysts up in the stands. Only in the second half was the connection from the hospital room to the stadium.

On the right side, Nagelsmann announced after an hour, that the offensive Serge Gnabry should now come for the more defensive oriented Benjamin Pavard.

"A brave decision," said Toppmöller, because the Portuguese still did not think of withdrawing and giving up their offensive efforts.

But the assistant did what the boss ordered - and found that it was a "spot on" decision.

Bayern's 1-0 shortly thereafter was still the matter of Sané, who circled a free kick over the wall into the goal (70th minute), but ten minutes later Gnabry prepared the 2-0, his cross from the baseline in front of the gate got stuck at Benfica's Everton.

The ball flew from his head into the goal. 

In this phase everything was reminiscent of the top game in the Bundesliga three days earlier in Leverkusen.

Last Sunday Bayern scored four goals in seven minutes in the first half, in Lisbon it was three in four minutes after the break.

And Gnabry was always involved.

Before Robert Lewandowski's 3-0 (82nd), he had put Sané, who offered a brilliant performance in a new role behind the top, well in scene.

The winger, who had been converted into ten, then only had to lay across the pole.

Gnabry also initiated the move that Sané completed with his second goal (84th).

In the end, Benficas Weigl admits, “we didn't have the juice for the last few meters” against the late starters from Munich.

FC Bayern did not have a perfect appearance at the Estadio da Luz, where it won the Champions League 14 months ago, but the last impression usually outweighs it, and it was fantastic after all. "It is certainly not that easy for the team if the head coach is not there at the last moment," said Toppmöller. But somehow Nagelsmann was present. At least in phases and by radio. “Everyone did a good job together,” said Neuer. "Everyone has their share in it."

Of course, Toppmöller too, who seemed rather uncomfortable with the attention and the spotlight.

“Somebody had to step in, but it's not that I did the big Zampano.

I don't take myself more seriously than I am, ”he said.

Nagelsmann has already let him know that he and Zembrod cannot avoid starting out as interim bosses with the traditional Bavarian meat loaf.

“We have to go through with that too,” says Toppmöller.

There are plenty of occasions to celebrate at FC Bayern.