Mueller sends Bayern four points clear as Dortmund beat Gladbach

Thomas Mueller scored as Bayern Munich opened up a four-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga with a 2-0 victory over Augsburg at the Allianz Arena on Sunday, while the spread of the coronavirus threatened to curtail the season.

Bayern lacked fluency in the opening stages despite scoring 13 goals in their previous three Bundesliga games, but did enough to edge closer to an eighth straight title.

German health minister Jens Spahn on Sunday called for the cancellation of all gatherings of more than 1,000 people in the country over fears surrounding the spread of the new coronavirus.

 But the German league immediately reacted, insisting that it was “out of the question” that the season would be delayed beyond its scheduled finish on May 16, a week before the German Cup final.

 Cases of COVID-19 in the country reached close to 850 on Sunday.

 Bayern extended their unbeaten run to 15 games despite starting slowly.

 It was not until near the end of the first half when the home side looked like troubling the scorers, with Mueller shooting over the crossbar with just the keeper to beat.

 Mueller made no mistake in the 53rd minute however, collecting a long ball from Jerome Boateng and side-footing into the net.

 The goal, reminiscent of the prolific Mueller of a decade ago, continued his recent strong form under manager Hansi Flick.

 Since Flick took over, Mueller has scored six Bundesliga goals and assisted 12 more in 15 games.

 Augsburg had several chances to equalise on the counter. Their best opportunity came when Florian Niederlechner had two bites at the cherry just two yards from goal in the 80th minute.

 He had his first effort saved by Manuel Neuer and was unable to take advantage of a fortunate bounce from the rebound, shooting straight into the desperate Bayern defence.

 Niederlechner found the back of the net in the 89th minute, but the goal was later ruled out for a marginal offside near the halfway line.

 Leon Goretzka put the game beyond doubt with a goal in second-half stoppage time after being expertly fed by Serge Gnabry before dribbling the ball past keeper Andreas Luthe.

Meanwhile, an inspired performance by Thorgan Hazard against his former club helped Borussia Dortmund claim a crucial three points in the title race with a 2-1 win away at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday.

The match was tense throughout and featured a Bundesliga season-high 10 yellow cards, with players from both teams needing to be pulled away from each other by Dortmund coach Lucien Favre at full-time.

“It was a difficult game. Gladbach are efficient and our first half wasn’t great,” said Favre.

“But after it was 1-1, we played well - and that was good, very good.”

Dortmund took the lead inside 10 minutes when ex-Gladbach midfielder Hazard took a pass from Erling Braut Haaland and shrugged off three defenders to curl a floating shot into the top left-hand corner of the net.

Gladbach equalised in the 50th minute when Lars Stindl tapped in a shot from Alassane Plea to score his fifth goal from his past four games.

The turning point for Dortmund came in the 66th minute when Jadon Sancho — who started on the bench ahead of Dortmund’s crucial trip to Paris Saint-German in midweek — was introduced.

Sancho’s assist, his 15th of the season, put Achraf Hakimi in acres of space on the right wing, with the Real Madrid loanee beating Yann Sommer through his legs. The win saw Dortmund leapfrog Leipzig into second place, trailing leaders Bayern Munich by a point.

Agencies