Bayern crush Leverkusen, regain top spot
BERLIN: Robert Lewandowski and Serge Gnabry both scored twice as Bayern Munich rampaged to a 5-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen to return to the top of the Bundesliga on Sunday. After suffering a shock defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt two weeks ago and losing top spot to Borussia Dortmund overnight, Bayern bounced back in style against fellow title hopefuls Leverkusen.
The 31-time German champions smashed in four goals in the space of seven minutes in the first half to humiliate a young Leverkusen side and go a point clear of Dortmund. “It was clear after 45 minutes that the three points were coming to Munich,” said Lewandowski, who kickstarted the rout with the opening two goals. “We knew that we would have to play our football from the beginning today, and the result shows how well we played.” It took Bayern less than four minutes to go ahead, Lewandowski converting a Dayot Upamecano cross with a brilliant backheel to net his eighth goal of the season. On the half-hour mark, the visitors carved through their opponents on the counter-attack, with Alphonso Davies bursting into the box to set up a poacher’s finish from Lewandowski. Thomas Mueller quickly made it 3-0, deflecting a Niklas Suele shot past Lukas Hradecky. Any hope of a Leverkusen fightback was buried just seconds later, as Mueller set up Gnabry with a cross to make it 4-0. Gnabry added a fifth after a sharp onetwo with Leon Goretzka.
West Ham win
LIVERPOOL: West Ham manager David Moyes enjoyed a winning return to Everton as Angelo Ogbonna’s header sealed a 1-0 victory at Goodison Park on Sunday. Moyes spent 11 years in charge of the Merseyside club from 2002 to 2013 and is still regarded fondly by Everton fans.
But his relationship with Everton’s current boss Rafael Benitez is less cordial after the Spaniard irritated Moyes by labelling the Toffees a small club during his time at Liverpool.
Benitez was unbeaten in his last nine league meetings with teams managed by Moyes, winning five in a row before this weekend’s encounter. His dominance over Moyes came to a halt as Ogbonna headed home with 16 minutes to play, extending West Ham’s unbeaten away record this term. The east Londoners have won five of the six games on their travels, while Everton slumped to their first home defeat this season.
“I want the team to play wherever we go, get us win,” Moyes said. “It is great. We want to keep fighting and do well in the league and in Europe as well.”
Milan go top
MILAN: AC Milan produced a superb second half fightback from two goals down to beat Verona 3-2 at San Siro and go top of the Serie A table. Milan have now picked up 22 points after eight league games.
A Gianluca Caprari strike and Antonin Barak penalty gave the visitors a comfortable halftime lead, but Olivier Giroud halved the deficit with a 59th-minute header. In a space of two minutes Franck Kessie equalised from the spot and Koray Gunter steered an attempted clearance into his own net.