October 23, (THEWILL) –Â Bavarian giants Bayern Munich maintained their Bundesliga lead with a 4-0 home win over Hoffenheim on Saturday, with head coach Julian Nagelsmann watching from the stands after testing positive for COVID-19.
Within eight minutes, Bayern had the ball in the back of the net, only for Serge Gnabry’s effort to be ruled out after a VAR review due to a foul by Jamal Musiala in the build-up.
Soon after, Gnabry scored a goal that stood, capping a free-flowing team move that began with a perfect pass from Musiala.
Expectedly, Robert Lewandowski scored a sublime second on the half-hour mark. Thomas Muller pounced on a hopeful long ball, held it up, and offloaded it to his strike partner, who lashed home from the edge of the box.
Lewandowski missed a good chance to make it 3-0 just before the break when his inside-the-box finish cannoned off Oliver Baumann’s foot.
Hoffenheim attempted to take the game to their opponents early in the second period, and they did manage to create several half-chances, but they failed to convert any of them. Bayern relinquished more and more territory as the half progressed, despite their opponents’ best efforts.
Die Roten remained dangerous on the counter, and substitute Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting put the game out of reach nine minutes from time when he latched onto a deflection and diverted the ball past Baumann. They thought they had a fourth goal seconds later, but an offside flag denied Corentin Tolisso a rare goal.
They scored again a few minutes later, with substitute Kingsley Coman lifting his finish over the helpless Baumann to complete the rout.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.