Werder Bremen 0-1 Bayern Munich: Report, Ratings & Reaction as Bayern Clinch Bundesliga Title
By Mitch Wilks
Bayern Munich were confirmed Bundesliga champions for the 29th time on Wednesday night when they fought to a 1-0 win away to Werder Bremen, Robert Lewandowski scoring the decisive goal near the end of the first half and Alphonso Davies' late red card not taking the gloss off a fine season.
The result means Bayern are officially the 2019/20 Bundesliga champions, edging past Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig to confirm their title with two games to spare. Despite a poor start to the season under Niko Kovac, Bayern have looked completely refreshed under the management of Hans-Dieter Flick.
However, the result leaves Bremen second bottom in 17th, locked in a battle to stay in the German top flight. A good performance against the champions will give them confidence to carry into their remaining games, but the scrap at the bottom of the table is closer than ever.
WERDER BREMEN
Player Ratings
Starting XI: Pavlenka (6); Selassie (7), Veljkovic (6), Vogt (6), Moisander (7), Friedl (7); Klaasen (6), Eggestein (7); Bittencourt (6), Osako (5), Rashica (5).
Substitutes: Langkamp (6), Bartels (5), Sargent (5), Fullkrug (5), Pizarro (7).
BAYERN MUNICH
Key Talking Point
Despite enjoying considerable amounts of possession from the opening whistle, Bayern struggled to break through Bremen's tight defence. Pushing high up the pitch, all the action was in Bremen's half, which left Die Roten open to a few counter-attack attempts from their relegation-threatened opponents, who held their own for much of the first half.
As that first half drew on though, Bayern began to work openings with more patience, as they probed Bremen and sent crisp through balls into Lewandowski through the centre. Jerome Boateng's beautiful lobbed pass at the end of the period was met by the Pole, who had run from deep to take it on his chest and fire home to open the scoring.
The second half continued to be mostly all Bayern. Lewandowski had a stunning, chopped effort from close range ruled out for offside just ten minutes after the restart, and the champions' pressing was relentless as they hunted down their eighth consecutive Bundesliga title, completely swallowing Bremen at times.
A few nerves appeared to creep in as the full-time whistle drew near, with Manuel Neuer causing some alarm in the 76th minute with a mad charge to the halfway line for a clearance before Alphonso Davies received a second yellow card just over 10 minutes from full time.
Player Ratings
Starting XI: Neuer (8); Pavard (6), Boateng (7), Alaba (7), Davies (5); Kimmich (8), Goretzka (6); Coman (7), Muller (8), Gnabry (6); Lewandowski (9*).
Substitutes: Hernandez (7).
Robert Lewandowski
Lewandowki's winning strike was his 31th Bundesliga goal of the season, and if anyone was going to secure the title for Bayern, it was him.
He shows no signs of taking his foot off the gas at 31, and continues to perform as the best striker in the world, not least the most prolific. He was unlucky not to get a second, with that magnificent chopped strike being disallowed for offside, but won't be losing any sleep over it.
Credit where it's due to Thomas Muller, too. Without Muller, there would be no Lewandowski and without Lewandowski, there would be no Muller. The duo have complimented each other perfectly all season, with the German constantly able to pick out his Polish teammate in sublime fashion – even if that job was taken on by, of all people, Jerome Boateng for the night.
Looking ahead
Despite Bremen's best efforts, they couldn't find any points against a supremely good Bayern side. The good news for them is that 16th placed Dusseldorf face RB Leipzig away from home on Wednesday night. Leipzig have been mightily impressive this season, and Werder Bremen will hope that they can turn over Dusseldorf, keeping both sides level on 28 points.
Bayern welcome Freiburg in their first game as 2019/20 Bundesliga champions, with the DFB-Pokal and the Champions League still to play for in the coming months.