Thomas Muller scored one goal and set up another as Bayern Munich restored their four-point advantage at the top of the table with a 5-2 victory against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, hours after Borussia Dortmund had reduced the gap with a win at Wolfsburg. The two sides meet in Dortmund on Tuesday.
Leon Goretzka, Robert Lewandowski and Alphonso Davies also got on the scoresheet as Bayern avenged a 5-1 defeat to Frankfurt in November that led to Niko Kovac being sacked as manager.
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In the second week of games since the Bundesliga resumed play, both teams wore black armbands for the victims of the coronavirus crisis and there was a minute’s silence held before kickoff.
Bayern came close to opening the scoring early on but Lewandowski’s effort hit the bar and Joshua Kimmich saw his close range header saved by Frankfurt goalkeeper Kevin Trapp.
But the hosts did take the lead after 17 minutes when Goretzka produced a fine finish from Muller’s cross, and it was a case of provider-turned-scorer just before half-time when Muller scored Bayern’s second goal after he controlled Davies’ cross.
Lewandowski grabbed a third just 54 seconds after the restart with a close range header that was his 27th league goal of the season, only for Frankfurt to produce a stirring comeback with defender Martin Hinteregger twice netting from set pieces.
Hansi Flick’s men recovered from that shaky spell, though, and added to their lead via Davies before Hinteregger’s late own goal finished off the scoring.
“I was happy with the first half,” Flick said after the game. “We wanted to dominate and we did that. At 3-0 maybe we were mentally already done with the game. Against Dortmund we want to keep a clean sheet.”