Bayern Munich continued their march towards the Bundesliga title following goals from Michael Olise, Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane.
It was all Bayern in the first half as they ended the initial 45 minutes with two goals to their name. Olise and Gnabry were on point to net the ball home, after battling the Union Berlin defence, which stood strong and at times were lucky enough not to concede till the 43rd minute. The hosts had the finest opportunity to open the scoring in the 30th minute, when Josip Stanišić broke free to square the ball to an unchallenged Lennart Karl before he hit the post from ten yards.
Union Berlin largely felt that they would come away from the first half unscathed, but Bayern put the pressure right on them, and they collapsed within minutes of Olise’s opener to concede a second. Kane also had a scoring chance in the 40th minute, but he slipped at the crucial moment to drag the ball across the face of the goal from close range.
The German capital side had little hope of mustering a second-half comeback, and the Englishman buried the game with just four minutes following the break to score his 31st Bundesliga goal of the season. Any little threat that Steffen Baumgart’s men posed was taken care of by the Bayern defence, and the visitors’ best chance came when substitute Jeong Woo-yeong’s long-range effort forced a stretched save from Jonas Urbig.
Bayern Munich 4-0 Union Berlin | PLAYER RATINGS
Bayern Munich:
Urbig (7), Laimer (7), Kim (6), Upamecano (7), Stanišić (8), Goretzka (7), Kimmich (7), Gnabry (9), Karl (6), Olise (9), Kane (9).
Others: Guerreiro (6), Bischof (6), Ito (6), Cardozo (-), Osmani (-)
Union Berlin:
Rønnow (4), N’soki (4), Querfeld (4), Doekhi (4), Köhn (5), Khedira (6), Kemlein (4), Haberer (6), Trimmel (5), Burcu (6), Skarke (3).
Others: Ilić (4), Rothe (5), Král (-), Jeong (5), Juranović (-)
GGFN Man of the Match | Serge Gnabry (9)
Bayern’s strong performance against Die Eisernen meant that there is more than one contender for the MOTM award, with Gnabry, Olise and Kane in the running. However, the German winger made the cut, thanks to his brace and an overall positive outing, in which he proved to be a livewire, threatening Union Berlin at every attacking opportunity. Gnabry was subbed off in the 87th minute as he capped his duty for this weekend with a 96% passing accuracy and a 100% conversion rate, along with a xG + xA of 1.19 (FotMob).
GGFN | Trambak Bhattacherjee
