Joy of six for Bayern
BAYERN MUNICH secured a sixth straight Bundesliga title after coming from behind to win 4-1 at Bavarian neighbours Augsburg.
After thrashing Borussia Dortmund 6-0 last weekend, the champagne was on ice – and Bayern recovered from conceding an early bizarre own-goal to wrap up the championship in style at the WWK Arena.
Coach Jupp Heynckes paid tribute to his players and to former coach Carlo Ancelotti, who Heynckes replaced in October.
“This title is everyone’s doing,” Heynckes insisted.
“First and foremost, it’s the players who have made it happen. It’s very special to become German champions.
“I’d like to send my best wishes to Carlo Ancelotti in Italy. This title is also for him. He’s a fantastic coach.”
Augsburg had taken a shock lead after 18 minutes when Sergio Cordova’s shot was saved by Sven Ulreich, but bounced up into the face of Niklas Sule and rolled into the empty net.
Bayern were soon level through Corentin Tolisso’s 32nd-minute header and James Rodriguez got them in front before the break.
Arjen Robben lashed in a third just after the hour, with Sandro Wagner nodding in a late fourth as Heynckes’ men delivered a 28th German league title.
Elsewhere, Bruno Labbadia claimed his first win since taking over at VfL Wolfsburg when they beat Freiburg 2-0 away with two goals from Daniel Didavi.
The win moved the Wolves two points clear of Mainz 05 who stayed in the relegation play-off spot after drawing 1-1 at Cologne.
Thorgan Hazard scored two second-half goals, the second from a penalty, to give Borussia Moenchengladbach a 2-1 win over Hertha Berlin after Salomon Kalou had put the visitors in front. ZINEDINE ZIDANE said Real Madrid will not offer La Liga leaders Barcelona a guard of honour before the ‘Clasico’ next month, if the Catalans are crowned champions before then.
Barca famously formed a guard of honour in May 2008 for newly-confirmed champions Real at the Bernabeu, but refused to repeat the gesture before their last La Liga meeting on December 23, days after Madrid had lifted the FIFA Club World Cup.
Ahead of the city derby against Atletico Madrid today, Zidane said: “Soon, I’m going to be asked about this and my answer is very clear. It’s my decision and it’s final.
“I don’t understand the concept of the guard of honour and so we aren’t going to do it. Barca broke with the tradition.”
Barca’s head of institutional relations Guillermo Amor said in December that his club had declined to repeat the guard of honour for Real as they had not participated in the Club World Cup.
Barcelona lead the La Liga standings over nearest challengers Atletico Madrid, with Real in third. Both Madrid clubs have a game in hand on the Catalans.
If Real beat Atletico today and Barca win their next four fixtures, Ernesto Valverde’s side will have clinched a 25th title by the time of the ‘Clasico’ on May 6 at the Nou Camp.
But Zidane said they were not worried about the fact victory over their city rivals would bring historical rivals Barca closer to winning the league, and were instead focusing on unseating Atletico in second. He said: “We’re not thinking about Barca’s path to the title, we’re just concentrating on the game and thinking about the three points as we want to keep accumulating points.
“Atletico deserve to be where they are, they’re second and all we can do is try and reduce the distance between them and us.”
Both sides go into the game high on confidence, with Real thrashing Juventus 3-0 in their Champions League quarterfinal first leg on Tuesday, and Atletico beating Sporting Lisbon 2-0 to take a big step towards reaching the Europa League semi-finals.