Bayern Munich dismantle battered 10-man Besiktas in 5-0 win
Bayern Munich returned to Champions League action by crushing Turkish side Besiktas with a 5-0 victory inside the Allianz Arena.
Things all went according to plan for Jupp Heynckes and Bayern Munich. The German champions made Besiktas play by their rules as they clinically picked them apart. Bayern’s forward line of Thomas Muller, Robert Lewandowski and Kingsley Coman were among the names who truly shined.
To Besiktas’ credit, the Turkish side made a few near-lethal chances and looked adventurous in the early minutes of the match. However, at the end of the day, they’ll be lamenting their poor decision-making. They shot themselves in the foot by having to play the majority of the match a man down.
This is now Bayern’s tie to lose. The Germans will carry a truly bloated lead over to Turkey for the second leg of this fixture.
Besiktas were stubborn most of the first-half
The match opened up with Bayern Munich looking quite hungry. But this didn’t mean Besiktas merely rolled over to allow Bayern straight through. The Black Eagles looked fairly energized and anxious to force an upset in Munich.
Bayern clearly began knocking on the door early. The Bavarian attack forced some early chances and asked questions of the Turkish team’s defense, ‘keeper included. But things began to sour pretty early for the visitors. Lewandowski found himself through on goal, leaving Domagoj Vida as the last man.
The Croatian defender made a poor decision and brought down the Polish striker with a mis-timed slide tackle, forcing a foul and an early red card from the referee. This set the tone for the rest of the match. A free-kick from James Rodriguez subsequently drifted just shy of the left corner.
Besiktas surprisingly didn’t let up, despite being a man down so early. Vagner Love got himself into a great position after some miscalculated deflections and decisions from Bayern’s center-backs. However, Love ended up skying his chance. Ricardo Quaresma made a great chance for himself after managing to skin Mats Hummels near the penalty area, but Sven Ulreich parried his ensuing shot out of play.
Finally for the German side, the stubborn Besiktas defense crumbled 43 minutes in. A delightful piece of skill from Kingsley Coman resulted in him streaking into the penalty box to find David Alaba. The ball ricocheted off the Austrian for Thomas Muller to subsequently slip through Fabri’s legs to make it 1-0 just before half-time.
All Bayern in the second-half
Unfortunately for Besiktas, the late first-half breakthrough only opened the floodgates in the second 45 minutes. At this point, it was the fresh legs of Bayern against a tiring 10-man Besiktas side. Less than ten minutes into the second half, Bayern pegged them again to double their advantage.
After some clean one-two play between Muller and Lewandowski, the Polish striker slid the ball across the penalty area to find Kingsley Coman. The young Frenchman struck the ball sweetly with a one-time finish past Fabri. 65 minutes in, Muller doubled his personal score.
Joshua Kimmich found himself down the right flank of the pitch and delivered a peach of a cross to the captain. Muller did well to reach the ball in a tight situation, and made it awkward for the keeper to cleanly get to it and claw the ball out. It was a man-of-the-match performance from the Bayern Munich poster-boy.
Bayern Munich continued to terrorize an already battered Besiktas until the end. Later on, almost 78 minutes gone, Mats Hummels found a rare opening for himself resulting in a wicked left-footed shot on goal. Fabri just managed to reach it, but the shot was uncomfortable to deal with. Lewandowski smelled blood and quickly scrapped out his opening goal.
The match closed with one more blow from Lewandowski. Arjen Robben played a wonderful through-ball to let Muller loose. The German ran his way into the box beofre placing a perfect ball for Lewandowski to tap into Fabri’s side netting, killing the match off at 5-0.
Next: Potent attack gives Bayern Munich 5-0 win over Besiktas — Player grades
It’s Bayern’s tie to lose
The match ended thoroughly convincing and one-sided in the favor of Bayern Munich. While Besiktas will feel hard-done by the red card, the quality Bayern Munich showed was undoubtedly superior on the day. The Bavarian contingent will travel to Turkey with a daunting lead and an almost assured ticket to the Champions League quarter-finals.