Bundesliga, Week 23: Bayern Munich Beat Mainz 05, Hamburg SV Hammer Werder Bremen

Mainz 05 put up a fight in the second half at the Stadion am Bruchweg, but it wasn’t enough to stop Bayern Munich from returning to winning ways on the road and moving ahead of Bayer Leverkusen (who play VfB Stuttgart on Sunday) into second place on goal difference. Mario Gómez gave the visitors a 3-0 advantage after seventy-seven minutes with his eighteenth league goal of 2010-11, but Sami Allagui prevented the Bavarians from claiming their second clean sheet away from home this season.

After Müller doubled Bayern’s advantage with forty minutes played the game followed a fairly uniform pattern: Mainz would try to keep the ball and put their visitors under pressure, and when FCB won the ball back they would break dangerously at pace. Bayern probably should have scored more than the three they did; Gómez had two chances aside from the one from which he scored.

Just five minutes into the second half at the Stadion am Bruchweg and Bayern Munich are 2-0 ahead of Mainz 05 courtesy of both some sloppy defending by the hosts and good attacking play. Mainz had come closer to scoring in the first minutes after the break, and Hans-Jörg Butt was called into action twice within two minutes of coming on as a half-time substitute.

The second goal came on fifty minutes, as Arjen Robben played in a poor clearance in the box from Jan Kirchhoff with an overhead kick; Thomas Müller got on the end of it and just diverted the ball past Heinz Müller in the Mainz goal. Bayern were nearly out of sight shortly afterward, as a classic Franck Ribéry run resulted in a scorching shot from the edge of the box that was parried by Müller to Müller (see if you can figure out who is who), who just got under his shot and scooped it over the crossbar.

Both Bayern Munich and Mainz 05 have had some good chances since Bastian Schweinsteiger put the visitors ahead inside of ten minutes, but Louis van Gaal’s team have weathered a bit of a storm and are still 1-0 up at the break.

Neither defence has been convincing, and Bayern’s Holger Badstuber has had a particularly poor game. Mainz nearly profited from the weakness in FCB’s central defence on twenty-five minutes, as Petar Sliskovic was one-on-one with Bayern goalkeeper Thomas Kraft, but the ball was just too far ahead of the Croatian striker and Kraft was able to claim it, although he recieved a knock on the forehead in the process.

Not even ten minutes into this vital clash in the Bundesliga’s race for European places and Germany’s record champions are ahead with just their second shot on goal; Bastian Schweinsteiger’s third league goal of the season has given FCB the lead.

Mainz tried to start on the front foot as Christian Fuchs shot towards Thomas Kraft’s goal straight from the kickoff; the young Bayern ‘keeper was alert to the danger, though, and prevented a cheeky opener. Mainz have been trying to test Philipp Lahm down their left side, but Bayern could benefit from that as it gives Arjen Robben more space along that flank.

Several German clubs were in action this midweek; Schalke 04 visited Valencia for their Champions League Round of 16 first leg, Stuttgart were in Lisbon to face Benfica, and Bayer Leverkusen traveled to eastern Ukraine for their clash with Metalist Kharkiv. In the Bundesliga, the re-scheduled Hamburg Derby went ahead on Wednesday.

The teams in Europe had a mixed set of results. Schalke came from behind to draw 1-1 in Valencia thanks to a very nice finish by Raúl, Stuttgart surrendered a first-half lead against Benfica, who won the first leg 2-1, and Leverkusen rolled over Metalist with a 4-0 win that included a late pair of goals from Sidney Sam. The Hamburg Derby went St. Pauli’s way, as a second-half goal from Gerald Asamoah was enough for a vital win that pulls last season’s 2. Bundesliga runners-up further away from the relegation zone.