Tuesday, December 14, 2021 at 8:22 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme

Bayern Munich increased the gap to pursuers Borussia Dortmund to nine points on Tuesday evening. Julian Nagelsmann’s team had no problem with VfB Stuttgart and officially crowned themselves Herbstmeister: 0-5. Serge Gnabry and Robert Lewandowski accounted for the goal production with three and two goals respectively. Due to the resounding victory, Bayern has 40 points from 16 matches. Dortmund will play the home game against last-placed Greuther Fürth on Wednesday evening.

In 21 of the previous 24 times that Bayern went into the new year as Herbstmeister, the team also became champions in the Bundesliga. Stuttgart remained surprisingly unbeaten in the last three matches and moved up to the safe fifteenth place. Also against the German record champion was held for a long time. The home team had the better of the game in the first company, but was unable to express this in goals. A shot by Gnabry on a pass from Lewandowksi was blocked and a shot by Thomas Müller was also defused. The major setback in the first half was the failure of Kingsley Coman. The attacker grabbed the hamstring after half an hour of play and was replaced by Leroy Sané.

The spell was broken by Gnabry. The winger made a controlled hit after Sané steamed up through the axis of the field: 0-1. The score was quickly doubled in the second half, when Gnabry again found himself at the end of a fine attack. This time the preparatory work came from Lewandowski, who awarded Gnabry his second goal of the evening. Bayern was by far the better match in the second company and tightened the thumbscrews further in the final phase. Twenty minutes before the end, Lewandowski lifted the margin to three by tipping the ball over Florian Müller on the advice of Gnabry, who would be involved in all hits.

Lewandowski equaled Gerd Müller’s record of most Bundesliga goals in one calendar year. The former striker also scored 42 goals in 1972. Three minutes later, the Polish striker struck again, when he again sought the combination with Gnabry and found the left corner: 0-4. Two minutes later, Gnabry took care of the final chord with his third of the evening. The attacker was in the right place to leave Müller close for the fifth time without a chance. Lewandowski also had a good opportunity to complete his hat-trick, but he hit the post ten minutes before the end.