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Munich goal celebration after the early 1-0
Photo: Lukas Barth-Tuttas / dpa
At the end of the 16th Bundesliga matchday, FC Bayern Munich won 3-0 (1-0) against VfB Stuttgart. Harry Kane scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season.
Munich coach Thomas Tuchel had to do without numerous first-team players in the top match: Kingsley Coman and Noussair Mazraoui were injured in the 1-0 win at Manchester United in the Champions League during the week, and the flu also cost the second-placed team more players. Leon Goretzka and Joshua Kimmich were ruled out, as was reserve goalkeeper Sven Ulreich.
In central defensive midfield, the unusual combination of Raphaël Guerreiro and Aleksandar Pavlović began. But while Stuttgart may have pondered whether this would be to their advantage, they were already 0-1 down. Thomas Müller had sent Leroy Sané after a Stuttgart misplaced pass in the build-up. The Germany international kept an overview and laid it off to Kane, who was able to slot in from five meters (2nd minute).
Stuttgart recovered from the early shock and tried to calm the game down. However, there were still opportunities for the Munich team: Konrad Laimer failed from a half-right position on the Bayern loanee in the Stuttgart goal, Alexander Nübel (8th).
In the middle of the first half, Kim Min-jae's header is said to have been narrowly offside (24th), and Nübel prevented Sané from scoring with a strong save on a counterattack (29th). Minutes later, Maximilian Mittelstädt decisively interfered with the goal (37th). Kane and Musiala missed the last double chance (45').
The only drawback in a convincing first half for Munich: the conversion of chances. The referees had other problems: the technique failed intermittently, so that Kim's debatable offside position could not be resolved.
In the second half, too, VfB coach Sebastian Hoeneß saw a Stuttgart team with a largely no chance at his old stomping ground. As a coach, he had won the championship in the third division with FC Bayern's second team.
Not third, but first class is England's national team captain Kane. After an unfortunate header by Stuttgart's Atakan Karazor, he scored with a header to make it 2-0 (55'). Kim also increased the lead to 3-0 with a header (63'). Both goals were preceded by crosses from 19-year-old Pavlović.
At the end of the year, VfB Stuttgart will host FC Augsburg next Wednesday, while FC Bayern will take on VfL Wolfsburg (both at 20:30 CET/TV: Sky).
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