An odd little game between Bayern Munich and FC Koln at the Allianz Arena was notable mainly for a ludicrous red card sustained by Franck Ribery in the first half. With the hosts dominating against a Koln side who could barely get out of their own half, the last thing Bayern needed to do was go down to ten men, but that's exactly what happened when Ribery failed to get on the end of a cross and started a bit of a tiff with centre half Henrique Sereno. Both were booked, but within ten seconds of being shown the yellow card the Bayern winger was back in Sereno's face, eventually grabbing the Portuguese defender by the neck.
It was a ludicrous gesture by Ribery, and the France star had to go, earning himself the dubious distinction ofbecoming one of the few players to have ever picked up a pair of yellow cards in less than a minute. Not that the sending-off hurt the hosts overly much, of course - Koln were still looking thoroughly incompetent apart from an isolated Lukas Podolski, and they could only hold Bayern at bay for so long before they finally cracked.
The home side could basically keep applying pressure until their mistake-prone visitors did something calamitously dumb, and that's exactly what happened in the 48th minute, when an awful pass out of the back by Pedro Geromel left Thomas Mueller free down the right. With Mario Gomez open in the centre, the Germany international simply slipped the targetman the ball for a tap-in to make it 1-0.
Down by a goal, Koln's miserable play meant that the visitors had no hope whatsoever of getting back into the match despite their numerical advantage. Before too long it was 2-0, with substitute David Alaba taking advantage of ludicrously poor corner kick defence to blast past poor Michael Rensing from two yards out. Toni Kroos added some gloss to an impressive victory with a clipped finish as the clock was running down.
With the 3-0 win, Bayern have ensured that they'll be top of the table come Christmas. Time for the Borussias to reply.
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