Bayern Munich continued their torrid pace in the Bundesliga with a 6-1 thrashing of Werder Bremen at the Allianz Arena on Saturday.
Jupp Heynckes made six changes to the starting eleven from Bayern's match on Tuesday against Arsenal in the Champions League. The rotation was necessary this weekend with a big DFB Pokal match against Borussia Dortmund this week.
After controlling the temp for the first 25 minutes, Bayern scored two in quick succession before the half hour mark. Arjen Robben knocked in a cross from Philipp Lahm, and Javi Martinez headed in a free kick from Robben.
Instead of getting back in the match with a goal before halftime, Bremen decided to make it more difficult on themselves by going down to ten men. Sebastian Prödl was sent off for a foul on Mario Gomez in the 44th minute making a comeback all but unlikely.
Bremen compounded that error by Prödl with one by Theodor Gebre Selassie, when the defender's clearance ended up in the back of his own net just after halftime. At this point it was 3-0 Bayern, and there was no looking back. It was 4-0 before Bremen could blink. Franck Ribery played a ball to Mario Gomez, and the big man easily finished.
The visitors managed to pull one back in the 58th minute through Kevin De Bruyne. Aleksandar Ignjovski intercepted Dante's clearance and passed to the Belgian who finished quite nicely. Unfortunately for Bremen, it was 4-1.
Bayern coasted for the remainder of the match, but they weren't done scoring goals yet. Ribery and Gomez scored in the 86th and 89th minutes to make it 6-1 and complete the route.
Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen don't play until tomorrow, so Bayern have an 18 point lead atop the table until then. Bremen have dropped to twelfth in the table.
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