Briefly, there was something different. For the first time in the 2020s, Bayern Munich trailed in a Bundesliga game. That was where the novelty factor ended as normal service resumed. Hansi Flick’s team extended their golden run. A 19th win in 20 games in all competitions was secured as the meeting of fifth and first in the Bundesliga became a procession.
Bayern were seventh in December but it is now a question of when, and not if, they secure their 30th league title. Bayer Leverkusen represented one of the bigger obstacles in their path, but Bayern’s deadliness on the break meant they turned a deficit into an advantage in 18 minutes. They can find different ways to win and, with 90 Bundesliga goals already, to score. A century beckons.
Bayern again showcased their range of talents. Kingsley Coman’s devastating pace meant he threatened to find the net before he did. Leon Goretzka is increasingly prolific. Serge Gnabry got a classy goal, his 19th of the season, and really should have taken his tally to 20. Robert Lewandowski did reach 30 in the Bundesliga, and a career-best 44 in all competitions.
Thomas Muller was the understated architect, a man who scarcely feels like a flair player but whose hat-trick of precise assists took him to 20 in the Bundesliga campaign. He is now only one behind Kevin de Bruyne's divisional record. Breaking that would cap a remarkable renaissance for a talisman who had been relegated to the role of bit-part player under Niko Kovac.
To compound a damaging day for Leverkusen, both Lewandowski and Muller collected bookings that will incur bans. It rules each out of next week’s meeting with Borussia Monchengladbach. If it probably means Gerd Muller’s record of 40 Bundesliga goals is safe from the Pole, it means Bayern’s top scorer and creator miss the game against Leverkusen’s principal rivals for fourth place.
If Peter Bosz’s side felt luckless, initially it seemed as though they had turned misfortune to their advantage. Rather than adding to his seven goals in six games, Kai Havertz was Leverkusen’s masked man in the stands, the possible Bayern target fiddling with his phone while sidelined by a muscle injury.
But his deputy broke the deadlock. Played onside by Jerome Boateng, Lucas Alario ran on to Julian Baumgartlinger’s pass to slot the ball past Manuel Neuer at his near post. When a grounded Lewandowski failed to apply enough power to a header, Leverkusen threatened to become only the second team to take points off Bayern this year.
And then the leaders overpowered them. Muller’s capacity to unlock the Leverkusen defence was apparent when he won possession in his own half, supplied a defence-splitting pass and Coman added the calm finish.
Peter Bosz had chosen three centre-backs and a ploy of defending deep but Leverkusen were still caught three times on the counter-attack in the first half. Bayern broke after the hosts had a corner and, after a deft flick from Coman, Goretzka drove Munich into the lead.
If Lukas Hradecky perhaps should have saved the shot, he redeemed himself with a fine block from Gnabry minutes later. No matter. He soon became the second Bayern winger to score with a nonchalant lob after a long pass from the excellent Joshua Kimmich.
Bayern ought to have scored more times in the second half, with Gnabry culpable for one glaring miss, but the goal they did get was emphatic. Muller found Lewandowski, who was unmarked to such an extent that the only man near him was his team-mate Goretzka, and the Pole leapt to head in.
Bosz had made a triple change at the break and the 17-year-old Florian Wirtz ended the game with a brilliant goal to become the youngest scorer in Bundesliga history.
Before then, Flick had made his own significant substitution, bringing on a fit-again Thiago Alcantara. It was a sign of strength in depth. Bayern made a different sort of statement: all their players wore armbands supporting the Black Lives Matter campaign
Leverkusen have now lost their last two home games 4-1 and face fourth-division Saarbrucken in the German Cup semi-final on Tuesday. It offers a chance to set up a rematch with Bayern. Though, on this evidence, they may harbour reservations about that.
