Bayern Munich topped Group F in style, beating BATE Borisov 4-1 at the Allianz Arena despite going down to ten men early in the second half. The hosts needed a win in order to guarantee themselves top spot after going into the game level on points with Valencia and holding the tiebreaker, and any other result seemed hugely unlikely from the beginning.
Bayern Munich vs. BATE Borisov: Final score 4-1, Bayern win to top Group F
Alexander Hassenstein
Bayern dominated the early exchanges, with Mario Gomez breaking the deadlock 21 minutes from a Xhedran Shaqiri cross. Jerome Boateng made things look more interesting when he was sent off for a two-footed lunge on Artem Kontsevoy, but Thomas Mueller quickly doubled Bayern's lead after a Toni Kroos flick, putting the home side back in the drivers seat.
Andrey Gorbunov was breached once again in the 66th minutes when Gomez turned provider with a perfect cross for Shaqiri to nod home, and then BATE’s semi-plight (the game didn’t matter for the visitors) was made worse with a second yellow and sending off for Denis Polyakov for a dive in the penalty area. Yegor Filipenko did get a consolation goal for the visitors, but by that point David Alaba had already made it 4-0 with a nicely-taken goal from outside the area.
All in all, a pretty good day for Bayern.
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