Bayern 3 – 0 Mainz: One Step Closer to the Title | OneFootball

A safe and good match for the Bavarians today against Mainz, without any slight chance of letting this win slip through their fingers. But the title celebration will need to wait at least another week.

This article written by Rainer Pompermayer

In the match that could have clinched Bayern the title, if Augsburg managed at least a draw in Leverkusen, Kompany sent basically the same line up as the previous week. And the match started well for the Bavarians with two good chances for Sané in the beginning of the match, until he opened the score and Olise doubled the lead still in the first half.

The second half had a couple of changes in the lineup, like with Thomas Müller making his 500th appearance in the Bundesliga, but the third goal would come only towards the end of the second half with Dier scoring after a nice Olise corner.

Even though a lot of home fans were singing “Deutsche Fußballmeister” by the end of the match, unfortunately Bayer Leverkusen also won at home, so we will need to wait at least another week for the confirmation of the Bundesliga title.

THINGS WE NOTICED:

High intensity first half, low energy second

Even though Bayern started really well, with a lot of movement up front, a lot of chances and two goals before the break, the second half was clearly a step down. We know that the season was really long and this match was basically secure, but with Bayern dropping the intensity, Mainz was able to create two or three counters. Today no damage was done by this intensity drop, but in the last two seasons we’ve seen better opponents take advantage of this flaw.

Another clean sheet

After so many goals against from the likes of Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund and even St Pauli, it’s nice to see Bayern coming out of a second straight match without conceding. Even though Mainz didn’t pressure the back line that much, players like Laimer, Urbig and especially Stanisic had a nice performance to keep the visitors’ score sheet at zero.

Müller reach 500 Bundesliga matches

Every single milestone that Müller reaches should be celebrated and of course with the current situation of his contract not being renewed, every Bayern fan should celebrate even more. And the 500th Bundesliga game isn’t a low importance record at all, Thomas became the 13th player to secure this milestone, and only the fourth to do so for just one club.

LINE UPS AND GOALS:

Bayern: Urbig – Laimer, Dier, M.-J. Kim (Boey, 46th), Stanisic – Kimmich, Pavlovic (Goretzka, 84’), Olise, Gnabry (Coman, 72’), L. Sané (Müller, 84’) – Kane (Kusi-Asare, 88’)

Mainz: Zentner – da Costa, Hanche-Olsen, Kohr – Caci (Veratschnig, 29’), Sano, Amiri, Mwene (Weiper, 74’), Nebel (Widmer, 87’), J.-S. Lee (Nordin, 87’) – Burkardt (Sieb, 87’)

Goals: 1:0 Sané (27’), 2:0 Olise (40’), 3:0 Dier (84’)

Yellow cards: Kane, Laimer / Mwene, Amiri