Bayern Munich return to form with emphatic win against VfB Stuttgart

On Matchday 15 of this Bundesliga campaign, Bayern Munich hosted Stuttgart in a game that the second-place side would like to use as their redemption match after last week's poor performance against Eintracht Frankfurt. Losing 5-1 to Eintracht really exposed Bayern and showed them the areas that they heavily needed to improve in before this match against Stuttgart.

From an offensive standpoint, Bayern started on the front foot against VfB Stuttgart on Sunday. It only took the Rekordmeister two minutes to take the lead after Harry Kane buried his 19th goal of the season. From midfield, Thomas Muller sent a looping overhead ball to find Leroy Sane's run in the final third. After skillfully dribbling past one defender, Sane squared the ball across the goal to find unmarked Kane to slot the ball into the net. The goal against Stuttgart made Kane the fastest player to score 19 Bundesliga goals, doing so in just 14 games.

An uneventful 20 minutes was eventually brought to an end after a foul set up Bayern in a very nice position for a freekick, just two yards outside of the box. Lining up to take the kick with Sane to his right, youngster Aleksandar Pavlovic fired a beautiful cross to find the head of Kim Min Jae. Soon after the the South Korean thought to have scored his first Bundesliga goal, he was officially ruled offside, cutting celebrations short.

Sane continued to probe in the final third, though no first-half goals came out of his good play. The 32nd and 37th minutes saw golden opportunities for Sane but his finishing let him down. It seems as though the German was putting too much thought into his next move rather than focusing on the goal in front of him. These chances could have easily put the game to bed.

Right before the halftime whistle, Bayern thought to finally get their elusive second goal as Muller effortlessly passed the ball into the back of the net. However, after the celebrations had concluded, the referee waved the goal off as Muller was a fraction offside.

Bayern picked it up in the second half as they finally were able to open up the Stuttgart defense and put the ball past Alexander Nubel. From the word go, all Bayern players showed great intensity to beat Stuttgart in and out of possession.

In the 55th minute, who else besides Harry Kane was finally able to secure Bayern's second goal. After a clever set-piece routine, Kane nodded the ball into the net to double Die Roten's lead.

Not even 10 minutes later, Bayern recorded their third of the night coming from another set piece. The delivery from Pavlovic today was unmatched. A young player with this much accuracy and dominance needs to stay on the field. Just as impressive as Pavlovic's delivery was Kim Min-jae finally getting his first Bundesliga goal, after his first goal was ruled out for offside in the first half.

The performance from Bayern displayed pure dominance, offensively and defensively-- something that they have not shown consistently since the initial phase of the season. This seemed to be a different Bayern, almost as if they needed that 5-1 loss last week to wake up. Bayern will enjoy this win as it is their final home game of the calendar year and will look to carry some momentum into their midweek match against Wolfsburg.