Bundesliga Week 17 Recap: Bayern v Köln 3-0

It wasn’t always beautiful but it’s three points.

They tried to beat the wall but struggled to do so. Toni Kroos and Franck Ribery were very active but that wasn’t enough in the first half. Things looked even worse when the French winger had to leave the pitch after some action with Henrique Sereno. The first half was dire.

Shortly after the second half began, however, Köln finally made a mistake. Geromel couldn’t control the ball, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk said thanks and immediately played a pass to Thomas Müller. Müller walked in front of Michael Rensing and gave the ball to Mario Gomez to complete the final act of tearing down the wall. David Alaba, who did a lovely job after replacing Müller, scored the second when nobody else touched the corner kick delivered by Toni Kroos. When Kroos himself, man of the match, beat Rensing with a beautiful lob, it was clear that, as Mario Gomez said it, “football wins” that night.

Pretty much every Bayern player did a good job, especially Kroos, Ribery, Alaba and Tymoshchuk were great. Köln? An opponent being shorthanded should be an advantage, you know?

Goals:

• 1-0 Gomez (48′)
• 2-0 Alaba (63′)
• 3-0 Kroos (88′)

Subs:

• FC Bayern:
• David Alaba (Müller, 52′)
• Luiz Gustavo (Robben, 76′)
• Ivica Olic (Gomez, 78′)

• 1. FC Köln:
• Tomoaki Makino (Brecko, 14′)
• Sebastian Freis (Podolski, 68′)
• Odise Roshi (Clemens, 69′)

Team stats (Bayern-Köln):

• Ball possession: 62% – 38%
• Shots taken: 17 – 4
• Passes completed (in %): 489 – 217 (87% – 76%)
• Corner kicks: 10 – 2
• Tackles won: 56% – 44%
• Fouls committed: 15 – 18
• Distance covered: 104,8 – 118,1

Leading player stats (Bayern-Köln):

• Touches: Toni Kroos (122) – Henrique Sereno (65)
• Shots taken: Toni Kroos (3) – Mato Jajalo (2)
• Passes completed: Toni Kroos (83) – Henrique Sereno (37)
• Crosses attempted: Rafinha (7) – Sereno/Makino (1 each)
• Tackles won: Badstuber/Tymoshchuk (12 each) – 4 players (9 each)
• Tackles won in %: Badstuber/Tymoshchuk (75%) – Geromel (75%)
• Distance covered: Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (10,8) – Slawomir Peszko (12,2)
• Fastest sprint in km/h: Daniel van Buyten (31,4) – Lukas Podolski (31,6)

Other Bundesliga matches:

• Leverkusen v Nürnberg 0-3 (Didavi, Hegeler, Pekhart)
• Hamburg v Augsburg 1-1 (Guerrero; Oehrl)
• Freiburg v Dortmund 1-4 (Rosenthal; Lewandowski x2, Gündogan, Großkreutz)
• Hoffenheim v Hertha 1-1 (Salihovic; Hubnik)
• Wolfsburg v Stuttgart 1-0 (Polter)
• Schalke v Bremen 5-0 (Raul x3, Papadopoulos, Huntelaar)
• Lautern v Hannover 1-1 (Nemec; Abdellaoue)
• Gladbach v Mainz 1-0 (Herrmann)

Next match: Tuesday at Bochum (DFB-Pokal), 7 pm