Goals from Demichelis, Gómez give Bayern Munich win over Freiburg

Bayern Munich (Demichelis 39’, Gómez 61’, Tymoshchuk 72’, Kroos 80’) 4-2 SC Freiburg (Reisinger 64’, Braafheid o.g. 87’)

Germany’s record champions opened the Bundesliga weekend with an eventually convincing win over Freiburg at the Allianz Arena. An extremely poor first half was punctuated by Martin Demichelis’ headed goal from Daniel Pranjic’s corner kick, but there was else little for the home crowd to enjoy in a disappointing opening forty-five minutes. The Argentine centeback had returned to the Bayern lineup for his first league start of the season following a pre-match injury to Holger Badstuber. Toni Kroos was largely anonymous in the first half, and Papiss Cissé failed to take advantage of Freiburg’s few limited chances before the interval.

The match came to life after half-time, mainly thanks to the substitution of the extremely disappointing Hamit Altintop for Daniel Van Buyten. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk moved to holding midfield alongside Andreas Ottl, Kroos shifted wide left and Thomas Müller to his preferred right side. The combination play of Müller and Philipp Lahm allowed Bayern to make inroads on the right side, and their more positive approach was eventually rewarded as Mario Gómez scored from another corner by Pranjic.

However, the hosts were badly caught out soon after as Stefan Reisinger, who had only come on two minutes before, headed in from a good cross by Anton Putsila. The visitors were back in the match then, and did threaten Hans-Jörg Butt’s goal until Bayern caught them on the counter with just under twenty minutes to play. Pranjic was again the provider, this time for Tymoshchuk whose shot from just inside the box was beyond the outstretched arms of Oliver Baumann. Bayern continued to pour forward in the closing stages, Toni Kroos capping off the win with a stunning strike from distance, and an awful own goal by FCB’s Edson Braafheid, who had come on for Müller, came much too late to affect the final result.