Pep Guardiola says Bayern Munich’s full focus is now on Tuesday’s Champions League clash at AS Roma after routing Werder Bremen to go eight games without conceding a goal.
Bayern warmed up for their trip to Italy’s capital with a 6-0 hammering of Bremen, the Bundesliga’s bottom side, in Munich on Saturday with captain Philipp Lahm and Germany star Mario Gotze both scoring twice.
The Bundesliga giants earned their fifth straight victory as Spainiard Xabi Alonso netted his first league goal and Thomas Muller also converted a penalty.
Bayern have not leaked a goal in any competition since August and are top of Group E in the Champions League as they now face Roma home and away with a place in the knock-out stages within their grasp.
“People say it’s hard to get back into it after the international break, but we played well, had good positioning and good build-up,” said Guardiola.
“It was a bit easier for us after Philipp scored the first goal.
“Ok, we have three points more, but our focus is now on the Champions League.”
Munich were buoyed by France winger Franck Ribery making his return after a knee injury for the last 30 minutes against Bremen.
“That was a top performance from the team and we dominated,” said Lahm.
“We took out exactly what we wanted from the game, now we want to take more points in Rome.”
Roberto di Matteo enjoyed a winning start as Schalke coach as the club earned a 2-0 victory at home to Hertha Berlin.
The 44-year-old, who won the 2012 Champions League title with Chelsea, signed a three-year contract when he took over as Schalke manager after predecessor Jens Keller was sacked a fortnight ago.
Netherlands striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s first-half header put Schalke ahead before Germany midfielder Julian Draxler made it 2-0 on 65 minutes to leave Schalke eighth.
“The game wasn’t spectacular, but it was important for us to get three points,” said Di Matteo, who is the third Italian to coach a Bundesliga team.
“We were very committed and organised, but there is still work to do.”
Schalke host Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League on Tuesday and will play Group G leaders Chelsea in Gelsenkirchen on November 25.
Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp slammed his Borussia Dortmund side after Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Cologne made it five Bundesliga games without a win ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash at Galatasaray.
Dortmund are top of Champions League Group D but are enduring a horrible run domestically and Saturday’s loss was their third Bundesliga defeat in a row.
“We played a type of football which makes absolutely no sense,” fumed Klopp.
“We had a high number of failed passes and committed simple mistakes which really hurt us.
“We have to correct these errors. Not tomorrow, or the day after, but now. To concede two goals in each game is rubbish. We have to sort this out and no one will help us do that.”
Cologne took a 1-0 lead when midfielder Kevin Vogt fired home on 40 minutes.
Italy striker Ciro Immobile equalised, but Cologne’s Simon Zoller netted the hosts’ winner on 74 minutes.
The result sees Dortmund drop to 14th in the table – just two points above the bottom three – while Cologne are 11th.
Dortmund travel to face league leaders Bayern Munich away in a fortnight and Klopp’s side are already 13 points behind the Bavarians after only eight matches.
Elsewhere in Germany, Borussia Monchengladbach maintained a second place pace, four points off Bayern’s mark, with a 3-0 away win over Hannover. Max Kruse netted twice and Granit Xhaka scored once in the victory for Gladbach, who have won four and drawn four in their eight Bundesliga matches.
Behind them in third are Mainz, who edged Augsburg 2-1 thanks to first-half goals from Jairo Samperio and Jonas Hofmann three minutes apart.
Bayer Leverkusen disappointingly surrendered a big lead, and points, to Stuttgart in a 3-3 draw. Son Heung-min netted a double inside the first 10 minutes and Karim Bellarabi tacked on another to take a 3-0 lead into half time. But Timo Werner in the 57th minute, Florian Klein in the 67th and Martin Hamik in the 76th made it level for the hosts.
Wolfsburg also took three points away with a 2-1 win over Freiburg.
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE