Electric shock! Bayern’s late surge toasts Wolfsburg 6:1

A power outage almost cancelled this game and Wolfsburg sure wished it wouldn’t have come back. Despite being outplayed for 50 minutes, Bayern exploded with a late surge to score five goals in 17 minutes and win 6:1.

First half: failing under pressure

Wolfsburg started the game with early possession, but their passing came against pressing by Bayern. They had to send long balls, often directly to Manuel Neuer. Before 10 minutes were gone, the roles were reversed, with Bayern taking the ball but failing to produce a major chance. Xherdan Shaqiri was the most frequently unmarked man, but he did everything right only until he got the ball. He missed a couple of opportunities.

Wolfsburg’s pressing got more intense as time went. Although they are not counterattack specialists, they took advantage of little mistakes such as a Toni Kroos slip to get quick transitions going. Fortunately for FCB, Jérôme Boateng and Dante came up big with tackles and blocks, preventing the Wolves from getting more than the Naldo goal.

You can also say that Kroos wasn’t having a good passing game. He barely got anything going past the middle of the pitch.

Second half: outcoaching and outbombing

The beginning of the second half wasn’t much better and coach Pep Guardiola clearly wasn’t happy with it. A couple of fast substitutions in favour of Mario Mandzukic and Thiago gave the team new energy. Within a few minutes, Thiago served a few perfect passes and Robben made a magic run on Benaglio to set up the fourth goal. This became a case of Pep outcoaching the opposition to bring in the right players at the right time.

Wolfsburg were still dangerous on the counter, forcing Neuer to make a good save past the 70th minute. But after that, nothing was going to change. FCB cruised to a big win.

The spin

This game shows, once again, that you can bring the game to Bayern. On the other hand, Pep earned this with perfect choices before the 60th minute and Thiago provided the much-needed spark to get all three points.

Goals

0:1 de Bruyne sends a cross to Naldo from the left. He beats Alaba on a run towards goal in the middle and deflects it in (17')

1:1 Messy situation. Multiple rebounds off a corner. Shaqiri is the first to put it in, although Müller was first credited for the goal (26')

2:1 Müller receives a great ball from Thiago through a crowd in the middle, makes a power move to the left and beats Benaglio (63')

3:1 Mandzukic gets a cross from Rafinha on the right and beats the keeper by redirecting it low on the right (66')

4:1 Robben undresses Benaglio three times by going left on a run, stops, cuts back to Ribéry who fills the empty net (71')

5:1 Müller dives to send a bouncing header in, taking Robben’s cross from the left wing (78')

6:1 Mandzukic receives a cross from the left on the counter by Müller, diving to tap it in (81')

Lineups

Bayern Munich have scored another 6...away. Barca struggling again. The genius of Guardiola is becoming more evident by the day.