Schalke vs. Bayern Munich: Final score 4-0, Bavarians dominate

After a shaky earlier few minutes, Bayern Munich put Schalke to the sword and left Gelsenkirchen with a 3-0 victory on Saturday. The victory moves the Bavarians back atop the table, level on points with Borussia Dortmund. Schalke remain in 12th place.

The opening ten minutes were well controlled by Schalke in what was an impressive display. They weren't able to keep up their pace, however, and Bayern slowly began to exert control on the match. Toni Kroos tested Timo Hildebrand from distance a few times before he ripped the back of net.

Bastian Schweinsteiger, returning to Pep Guardiola's lineup for the first time since returning from injury, opened the scoring in the 20th minute when he headed in an Arjen Robben corner kick. Only a minute later, Bayern made it 2-0 on another headed goal. Mario Mandzukic got onto the end of David Alaba's cross to put Schalke behind the eight ball.

The remainder of the first half was completely dominated by Bayern, and the Bavarians nearly added a third several times. The second half started the same way, with Schalke rarely threatening Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal.

The third goal came in the 75th minute thanks, once again, to Alaba's impressive showing along the left flank today. After dribbling into the Schalke penalty area, Alaba brought the ball to a dead stop, found Franck Ribery in the box, and passed the ball to the Frenchman for the easy goal.

Just when Schalke thought the 3-0 scoreline would be the final result, Claudio Pizarro scored on a Thomas Müller pass to make it 4-0 and put the final nail in the Königsblauen's coffin.

Schalke: Timo Hildebrand; Dennis Aogo, Joel Matip, Benedikt Höwedes, Atsuto Uchida, Roman Neustädter (Marco Höger, 46'), Jermaine Jones; Julian Draxler, Kevin Prince Boateng (Christian Clemens, 81'), Jefferson Farfan; Adam Szalai

Bayern Munich: Manuel Neuer; David Alaba, Dante, Jerome Boateng, Rafinha; Philipp Lahm; Franck Ribery, Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Jan Kirchhoff, 78'), Arjen Robben (Thomas Müller, 71'); Mario Mandzukic (Claudio Pizarro, 81')

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