Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski score twice as Bayern Munich thrash Besiktas in Champions League
Bayern Munich 5 Besiktas 0: The return leg is likely to be little more than a formality after the Turkish side were overpowered by Bayern's attacking talents
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Your support makes all the difference.Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski both scored twice as Bayern Munich defeated 10-man Besiktas 5-0 on Tuesday to all but secure progress to the Champions League quarter-finals for the seventh straight season.
Bayern played with an extra man after Domagoj Vida was sent off early for bringing down Lewandowski as the last defender, but didn’t open the scoring until the 43rd minute when Muller netted from close range. The floodgates opened after the break, though, as Kingsley Coman doubled the lead and Mueller grabbed his second midway through the second half.
Lewandowski polished off the win with two late goals to give Bayern a seemingly insurmountable five-goal cushion ahead of the second leg of the last-16 tie in Istanbul on 14 March.
“The red card definitely played into our hands,” Muller said after the biggest home first-leg win in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
It was Bayern’s 14th straight win across all competitions – a record for Jupp Heynckes as coach, who was spoiled for choice with all his outfield players fit.
“The keys to the win were the sending off, and then, later, the first goal before the break,” said Heynckes, whose side leads the Bundesliga by a huge margin. “The Champions League is another competition. I think we still need to improve.”
Bayern president Uli Hoeness ruled out any talk of Bayern repeating its 2013 treble from Heynckes’ previous stint.
“No. That’s crazy. We have to take it from one round to the next,” said Hoeness, later contradicted by Muller, who said the treble was “possible.”
AP
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