League leaders Bayern Munich beat FC Augsburg by the same scoreline as they did a few days ago when they met in DFB Pokal second round. Two back to back goals in first half from Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben set the tone up for the Champions before Lewandowski again pounced in the second half. Ja Cheol Koo’s goal only proved to be a mere consolation as Bayern Munich ran out clear 3:1 winners at the WWK Arena.
Lineups
Augsburg fielded a much familiar lineup to that they did in midweek. Marwin Hitz in goal who was guarded by a backline of Paul Verhaegh, Christoph Janker, Martin Hinteregger and Konstantinos Stafylidis. Captain Daniel Baier and Gojko Kacar played as the two central midfield players with Halil Altintop and Jonathan Schmid operating in wing positions. The front two comprised of two South Korean Internationals in Ja-Cheol Koo and Dong Won Ji.
Bayern on the other hand, made seven changes to their team that beat Augsburg in midweek. Manuel Neuer stayed in goal. Mats Hummels was given a rest as Javi Martinez started alongside Jerome Boateng in central defense. Philip Lahm and David Alaba were the wingbacks.
Renato Sanches was replaced by Xabi Alonso in defensive midfield and Arturo Vidal was chosen ahead of Joshua Kimmich while Thiago retained his place in the squad. The front three saw Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben making a start alongside Douglas Costa.
The game started in quite an interesting fashion. Dirk Schuster, whose rigid defensive formation was still breached by the record champions in midweek, chose to take risk by opting for a high pressing game in the first phases of the match.
Accordingly, Augsburg pressurized the Bayern midfield quickly to prevent them plying players forward. Augsburg operated with a three/five man pendulating back four as Gojko Kacar at times joined in with the central defense in defensive phases whilst in offense, the right back, Paul Verhaegh joined in with the attack and the back four turned to a back three.
Another feature of Augsburg was that Dirk Schuster didn’t choose to compromise all two of his fullbacks forward. Meaning either of the two fullbacks stayed a little deeper when the other is on an attack, in order prevent Bayern’s quick counter charge.
