Bayern Munich 6-1 RB Leipzig: Luis Díaz Hat-Trick Fires Warning Shot Before Arsenal Revenge Mission
Bayern Munich answered a frustrating week in the most emphatic way possible, demolishing RB Leipzig 6-1 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday night to climb to the top of the Bundesliga and warm up for Wednesday's Champions League meeting with Arsenal in ominous form.
Luis Díaz struck the first hat-trick of his professional career, Harry Kane marked his 100th Bundesliga appearance with a goal and two assists, and Aleksandar Pavlović and Michael Olise completed the scoring as Bayern raced into a three-goal lead inside 34 minutes. Leipzig's late consolation came from substitute Andrija Maksimović in stoppage time.
It was, in the words of Kicker, a “Trainingsspiel in der Allianz Arena” — a training game. Had it not been for goalkeeper Maarten Vandevoordt performing creditably, Leipzig's club record defeat — a 7-0 loss to Manchester City three and a half years ago — would have been comfortably surpassed. This was carnage.
Vincent Kompany's low profile on the touchline, sitting almost motionless on the bench as his team rattled a flurry of goals past a helpless Leipzig, had nothing to do with any lingering chagrin over his side's slow starts. The sporting director, Max Eberl, who stood in for his coach in the post-match press conference, explained that the Belgian had been ill, not to mention a current hip problem that had made the move from dressing room to pitchside slow and uncomfortable. It was just as well he did not attempt to get up from his vantage point every time his team scored, or he would have been extremely sore in the morning.
A furious clearing of frustration
This was Bayern being their brilliant best — piqued, prickly and poked into action by a potential challenge they felt compelled to prove was not much of one. It was a furious clearing of frustration on a number of levels: the need to defend Manuel Neuer after his early error at Augsburg, the industrial scale of chances frittered away in that game, the first-half punking by Viking in midweek in Stavanger — where Bayern went 1-0 down in less than 90 seconds — the concession of a late equaliser having fought back, and the red card for Michael Olise. Eberl had memorably called Viking's captain, Zlatko Tripic, a “scumbag” for systematically winding up the France midfielder to the point at which he picked up two bookings in the blink of an eye, the second for gently lobbing the ball in Tripic's face, forcing the latter to throw himself to the ground.
And how that feeling was expelled from the very beginning. Harry Kane called Vandevoordt into action in the opening seconds, but it was only a temporary let-off for the visitors. Díaz steamed on to a Joshua Kimmich pass to fly through the centre of the Leipzig defence and give Bayern the lead in the 12th minute. The Colombian created a second with a delicious pass for the onrushing Pavlović just before the half-hour, and just after a stunning collective move finished with Kane carving a chance for Olise to finish imperiously. It was a recital. The move that led to the Pavlović goal began with Kane steering the ball left from a quarterback position, maybe 10 to 15 metres in front of his own penalty area.
In the second half Díaz fully took centre stage, gathering a Kane pass to chop inside and curl a shot into the far corner, then scurrying the long way around to finish from a central area and complete his hat-trick — not the perfect hat-trick perhaps, but maybe the perfect Luis Díaz hat-trick of centre, from the left and a long run around to finish. His first Bundesliga goals since August were scoffed with the demeanour of a famished man.
For Leipzig and their coach, the former Bayern man Martin Demichelis, this was the starkest of reality checks. The media reaction was the same, a sense of disappointment that a supposed competitor to Bayern could offer so little in terms of resistance.
Arsenal are next
Nobody in Munich has forgotten their first defeat of last season, 11 months ago, when Arsenal stepped up a gear and showed just how good they had become in a comprehensive second-half display at the Emirates Stadium that led to a 3-1 win.
“We have memories of that game,” said Eberl, “and we want to translate those memories into energy this Wednesday.”
This version of Díaz will be needed against Arsenal with Olise suspended, and the score-settling version of Bayern will be the default too, with this the perfect warm-up in that sense, even if Leipzig were more compliant than might have been expected.
There is a sense of this all just being shadow-boxing, of course, in a league stage that Bayern and Arsenal will be expected to graduate from safely in the top eight. Yet any measure of where they are and where they are headed is useful. Even if Saturday was not a win-or-go-home situation, the game could be the season kickstarter for Díaz who, as Kimmich said, is extremely valuable to his team in that he is the most likely to make runs behind the defence; more so than Kane, Olise, or any of their midfielders.
“He delivered incredible numbers for us last season,” Kimmich continued — 22 goals and 17 assists in Bundesliga and Champions League combined — and here it was, starting again. Even at this early stage, markers are needed: after Leipzig, Arsenal are Bayern's next.