Bayern Munich concluded the first half of the Bundesliga season at the top of the table with a comfortable four-point lead over Bayer Leverkusen, following a resounding 5-0 victory over Hoffenheim on Wednesday.
With 42 points to their name (13 wins, three draws and one defeat), Bayern recorded the seventh best start to a season in their Bundesliga history, five points short of the 47 they accumulated in the 2013/2014 season. , Pep Guardiola’s first campaign in charge of the team.
Vincent Kompany’s men, in his first season as Bayern head coach, responded emphatically to Leverkusen’s narrow victory under Xabi Alonso against Mainz (1-0) the day before.
The German football community is already salivating at the prospect of the clash between the two teams on February 15 at the BayArena in Leverkusen.
Facing a 16th-ranked Hoffenheim side struggling to avoid relegation, Bayern got into the thick of things early on. Leroy Sané opened the scoring in the 6th minute, while Portuguese defender Raphaël Guerreiro doubled the lead just six minutes later.
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And what would a Bayern match be without a goal from Kane? The England captain won a penalty just before half-time for a handball from an opposing defender in the area. The striker made no mistake, recording his 27th consecutive successful penalty.
The last time Kane missed a penalty was in the Qatar 2022 World Cup quarter-finals against France.
Kane thus returned to the top of the Bundesliga scoring charts alone with 16 goals, after sharing that place for 24 hours with Omar Marmoush of Eintracht Frankfurt, who scored once and provided two assists in a victory 4 -1 against Freiburg on Tuesday.
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On a cold night at the Allianz Arena, accentuated by intermittent snowfall, the match maintained its momentum in the second half. Sané completed his double in the 48th minute after a superb pass from Mathys Tel, and Serge Gnabry closed the scoring with the fifth goal in the 66th minute.
“I played with Leroy (Sané). The most important thing is that he shows himself as I knew him as a teammate,” commented Kompany, who shared the dressing room with Sané at Manchester City.
“Today we showed the hunger we have, and it must stay that way,” proclaimed the former Belgian defender.
In the standings behind the leading duo, RB Leipzig (4th) missed an opportunity to equalize Eintracht after losing in Stuttgart despite a 2-1 lead. Eintracht thus occupies third place on the podium with 33 points, three more than Marco Rose’s Leipzig.
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Stuttgart, meanwhile, recorded their second consecutive victory after beating Augsburg, preparing to face Paris SG in two weeks in the final group match of the Champions League group stage.
