FC Bayern Munich prematurely fixed the autumn championship on matchday 16 of the Bundesliga thanks to a gala by Serge Gnabry. In the 5-0 (1-0) win at VfB Stuttgart Gnabry was directly involved in all goals. The team of coach Julian Nagelsmann is now nine points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, which welcomes SpVgg Greuther Fürth on Wednesday.
Gnabry put his FC Bayern in front with a brace (40th and 53rd) in front of 750 spectators, then put on two goals from Robert Lewandowski (69th and 72nd) before he scored the 5-0 again himself (74th) . Gnabry was in the starting line-up for the first time since the 2-1 draw against FC Augsburg in mid-November.
Meanwhile, FC Bayern are worried about Kingsley Coman, who had to be replaced after a duel with Konstantinos Mavropanos in the 26th minute due to a muscle injury in his right thigh.
Bayern will end the first half of the season against VfL Wolfsburg on Friday evening, while Stuttgart will travel to 1. FC Köln on Sunday.
VfB Stuttgart versus FC Bayern Munich: The analysis
Nagelsmann had to do without his four nominally best players Kimmich, Goretzka, Tolisso and Sabitzer in the central midfield. Instead, Musiala and Roca, who made his starting eleven debut this season, started despite his metacarpal fracture.
In possession of the ball, Bayern played in a 4-1-4-1 system with Roca as the only six. But he hardly gave any impulses there, Musiala was clearly more present a little further up the front. In general, FC Bayern’s build-up game stalled enormously on extremely bumpy grass, and the last option was always another ball.
The absence of Sane, who was only on the bench after ten competitive games in the starting eleven, was clearly noticeable. Gnabry started on the right, Coman took the sane position on the left. Unlike Sane, he hardly moved from there to the center and instead held the line, with which he also blocked advances by Davies.
That problem resolved itself when Coman had to go down in the 27th minute and was replaced by Sane. The previously harmless and unimaginative FC Bayern immediately became more active, and Stuttgart immediately wavered. Sane acted a bit surprisingly on the right, but does it very well there too and prepared Gnabry’s goal to make it 1-0.
Stuttgart bravely came out of the locker room and worked out a few chances to close in the early stages of the second half, but they remained unused. Just in this urge phase Gnabry, who had meanwhile swapped sides with Sane, scored the decisive 2-0.
Stuttgart then gave up – and Gnabry still didn’t have enough. There were two more assists and another hit from the former Stuttgart. Nagelsmann then gave Tillmann, Nianzou, Richards and Cuisance game practice.
The star of the game: Serge Gnabry (FC Bayern Munich)
Outstanding comeback from the starting line-up after almost a month: Gnabry scored three goals and two assists. Apart from that, Gnabry was a constant source of unrest. Together with Lewandowski, he gave the most shots of all players on the pitch.
The flop of the game: Konstantinos Mavropanos (VfB Stuttgart)
The highly traded central defender from Stuttgart lost almost all of his tackles and suffered a number of ball losses. One of them leads to Gnabrys 2-0.
The referee: Robert Schröder
Schröder made no significant mistakes in the fair game.
