Bayern Munich cruise to comfortable win against Hertha Berlin
The good run of form for Bayern Munich under Julian Nagelsmann continued on Sunday. The defending Bundesliga champions clinched a comfortable 4f-1 victory against Hertha Berlin to remain at the top of the points table with a lead of six points.
Julian Nagelsmann started the game in a unique system that saw three center-back with Joshua Kimmich playing in front of them. Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry provided width and acted as hybrid wing-backs. They had more responsibility in the final third, while Kimmich was setting the tempo in the midfield.
The system implemented by Nagelsmann for this particular worked well from the word go. Die Roten pinned Hertha Berlin in their half and started creating chances consistently. Corentin Tolisso had the ball in the next, but the goal was chalked off as the French midfielder was marginally offside.
Hertha was getting no breathing space as Die Roten was relentless. They were testing the goalkeeper and kept on winning the ball quickly after turnovers in the final third. Eventually, the breakthrough came in the 25th minute. A dangerous cross from the left flank by Kingsley Coman was headed brilliantly by Tolisso.
The French midfielder was making very potent late runs in the box as he almost doubled his and team’s tally when he narrowly missed the target after a delicious cross from Gnabry. Hertha did try to stitch a few passes to create good chances, but the visitors managed to defend it successfully.
The visitors doubled the advantage just before half-time with a well-worked setpiece. Kimmich’s pinpoint delivery was finished by Thomas Muller to round off an impressive half for Rekordmeister. It was one of the most dominant first-half displays from Die Roten under Nagelsmann.
The second half did see a better response from Hertha Berlin. They managed to create a few decent openings, but Rekordmeister did enough to keep them at bay. The visitors finally got their rhythm back and started the onslaught in the final third.
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Sane capitalised on a big error from Hertha’s goalkeeper to put the game past the home side. The German winger doubled his tally a few minutes later with a sumptuous strike from outside the box, but it was later ruled out for handball from the winger before taking the shot. Gnabry made it four in the 79th minute to take his Bundesliga tally for this season into double digits.
A miscommunication between Manuel Neuer and Dayot Upamecano gave Hertha a consolation goal late in the game. Overall, it was a productive evening for Bayern in terms of result and quality of performance. They thoroughly dominated Hertha by taking 30 shots and having an impressive expected goal score of 4.99. On any other day, it could have been a much bigger scoreline. (Stats courtesy: Fotmob)