Bayern extends their lead over Bayer Leverkusen back to six points.
A Bayern Munich side plagued by injury managed to get the job done against a stubborn St. Pauli.
These are the some of the biggest takeaways from Bayern’s hard fought victory.
There are no more gimmes in this Bundesliga title race
St. Pauli looked like the perfect team to come up against following the international break. 15th spot in the Bundesliga and struggling to score goals, the fixture should have afforded Bayern the opportunity to dust off the cobwebs after the international break in what looked like an easy game. Although, as everyone has heard, what should happen on paper isn’t always what happens on the field.
St. Pauli, the Bundesliga’s third best defence after Bayern and Mainz, stayed true to their defensive philosophy and, bar some individual mistakes which ultimately cost the Kiezkicker, made life very difficult for Die Roten.
With Bayer Leverkusen nibbling on the heels of Bayern, the margin for error is extremely narrow. Bayern cannot afford any slip ups, and that means showing up for every game. Even the ones that look like a tap in on paper.
The injury gods strike again
Bayern came into the game against St. Pauli with a lengthy injury list including: Alphonso Davies, Dayot Upamecano, Manuel Neuer, Aleksandar Pavlović, Kingsley Coman and the chronically injured Tarek Buchmann. Unfortunately for Die Rekordmeister, the injury gods are not quite ready to allow Bayern a respite.
Hiroki Ito joins the list of injured Bayern players after sustaining, you guessed it, a foot injury after coming on as a 58th minute substitution for Raphaël Guerreiro.
It remains to be seen how serious Ito’s injury is, but after struggling with a metatarsal injury since preseason, it doesn’t look like good news.
Leroy Sané finds his shooting boots… finally
Bayern Munich’s trio of left-wingers, Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman, and Serge Gnabry, have all come under fire for their under par performances across the season and as a result, none of the three have been able to lockdown a starting berth.
However, after bagging two goals in an efficient display, the left flank is Sané’s to lose.
While it hasn’t been Sané’s hallmark season in a Bayern shirt, missing several big chances throughout the season, his brace takes his goalscoring tally to nine, making it the 29-year-old wingers highest scoring Bundesliga campaign to date.
Let’s hope Sané can continue his efficiency and confidence in front of goal.
Harry Kane breaks his Bundesliga goalscoring drought
Harry Kane continued his goalscoring form after netting against Albania and Latvia in The Three Lion’s World Cup Qualifier victories.
Surprisingly, the prolific English striker went goalless in his previous five Bundesliga encounters before breaking the metaphorical duck against St. Pauli, tapping a Michael Olise cross home from close range.
Harry Kane is back on the score sheet in the Bundesliga and in other news, water is wet.
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