Bayern blitz a lesson for Leipzig
Manager Ralph Hasenhuettl said 10-man RB Leipzig was taught a “tough lesson” as leader Bayern Munich hammered its nearest Bundesliga rival 3-0 on Wednesday.
Bayern coach Carlo Ancelotti hailed a “perfect” opening 30 minutes in which Thiago Alcantara and Xabi Alonso netted early goals before Leipzig winger Emil Forsberg was shown a red card for a dangerous tackle.
The sending-off steepened the visitor’s already uphill task in the top-of-the-standings clash at Allianz Arena.
Leipzig goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi compounded his team’s problems by fouling Douglas Costa to concede a penalty which Robert Lewandowski converted in the 45th minute to make it 3-0.
The victory meant Bayern reached the winter break with 39 points from 16 games, three ahead of Leipzig, which lost its second match of the season. Hertha Berlin’s 2-0 win over Darmstadt moved it to third, with 30 points.
“I’m very satisfied. We were very aggressive and quickly got the game under control,” said Ancelotti.
The Italian’s Leipzig counterpart, Hasenhuettl, recognized Bayern’s superiority.
“That was a lesson for us and a top performance from Bayern. Our system only works when everyone is in
Bayern Munich centerback Mats Hummels dyed his hair blond for Wednesday’s 3-0 triumph against RB Leipzig after losing a bet at the Oktoberfest beer festival.
The 28-year-old World Cup winner, who usually has dark hair, went peroxide blond for the high-profile showdown at Munich’s Allianz Arena which saw Bundesliga leader Bayern open a three-point gap over second-place Leipzig.
Hummels said his striking makeover was a forfeit after los-
synchrony, and that wasn’t the case today.
“We had a few players who weren’t 100 percent fit. You can’t do much to defend against Bayern when they play like that.
“I’m still proud of what the team has achieved until now. You don’t get a point deducted for losing 3-0.”
Any chance RB had of fighting back from 2-0 down was ended by Forsberg’s dreadful tackle on Philipp Lahm.
The Sweden international trod on the Bayern captain’s Achilles tendon and rightly saw red.
“We don’t need to talk about the red card by Emil,” said Hasenhuettl.
“We all make mistakes, so I’m not going to demonize him, but I’m still proud of how the team has done so far.”
Prior to the showdown, Leipzig had kept Bayern off top spot for three weeks at the start of the month and the teams have been in a neckand-neck battle since.
But Ancelotti’s men dominated and shut Leipzig out after the break, using 75 percent possession to dish out a masterclass to RB’s young pretenders in their debut topflight season.
“We were very aggressive and quickly established control,” said Ancelotti.
“Everything was in tune — the pace and the tactics, which gives us self-confidence, but we must still improve.”
ing a game of skittles during a visit to Munich’s Oktoberfest,
Bayern stalwart Lahm, 33, said the Bavarians wanted to prove a point to their rivals.
“All of Germany had an eye on this game and was looking forward to it,” said the country’s 2014 World Cup winner.
“It was a duel between two teams who wanted to prove themselves.
“We wanted to throw down a marker before the winter break, which we managed to achieve, especially in the first half.”
Leipzig captain Willi Orban reckoned his team was simply outplayed.
“We made a lot of plans, but it was not the game that we wanted,” said the centerback.
“Bayern was just better and really deserved it.”