Schalke 04 Lose to Bayern Munich

After defeats against Kaiserslautern and Manchester United the Royal Blues ended a disappointing week with a 4-1 reverse at Bayern Munich on Saturday evening.

Ralf Rangnick made two changes to the line-up from the first leg of the Champions League, introducing Annan and Kluge for Baumjohann and Edu as the Schalke boss opted for a more defensive approach. Benedikt Höwedes was again sidelined with an abdominal strain. 

Hannover's 1-0 defeat to Borussia Mönchengladbach in the afternoon presented Bayern Munich with the chance to leapfrog the Lower Saxony side into third spot in the Bundesliga. And Bayern set out to exploit this opportunity from the kick-off. The Royal Blues struggled to get into the game and soon went behind after six minutes. Anthony Annan gave the ball away on the touch line, Mario Gomez centred into the box and Arjen Robben made no mistake as he found the bottom left corner of the net. But Schalke hit back straight away. From a short corner Jefferson Farfan dispatched a cross into the Bayern box where Holger Badstuber, under pressure from Joel Matip, turned the ball into his own goal to level the scores with eight minutes gone.

Bayern continued to press forward, however, and they were rewarded on 13 minutes. A Robben free-kick from the edge of the box deflected off the Schalke wall and Thomas Müller smacked the rebound into the net to restore the home side's lead.

With the action increasingly taking place in Schalke's half, the lively Robben hit the side netting on 16 minutes but three minutes later Bayern were celebrating again. A cross by the Dutch winger was headed on by Müller for Mario Gomez to score with a tap in at the far post. Under the intense pressure Schalke found it almost impossible to mount any threat on the Bayern goal, a fact reflected by attempts on goal stats of 10-0 in favour of the Munich outfit at half-time. 

Ralf Rangnick rang the changes for the second half, introducing Alexander Baumjohann for Hans Sarpei in support of Edu, who replaced Raul up front. The substitutions appeared to have little effect on the game, however. Bayern were in control and Schalke did not start pressing forward again until ten minutes into the second half, though they were unable to carve out any clear-cut chances. Manuel Neuer was once again centre stage as he produced a number of saves to keep his team in the game. Robben missed a great chance to make it 4-1 after breaking into the box on 78 minutes, Neuer saving his shot on goal just in time with his left foot.

The Royal Blues never really looked like they were going to get back on terms and instead the hosts extended their lead with six minutes to go. Ribéry passed to Müller from the right flank, and although Kyriakos Papadopoulos was able to block the first shot, the Germany striker dispatched the rebound into the bottom corner to make it 4-1.

Bayern:

Butt - Lahm, Van Buyten, Badstuber, Contento (Ottl 72') - Schweinsteiger, Tymoshchuk - Robben, Müller (Kroos 85'), Ribéry - Gomez (Klose 83') 

Schalke: Neuer - Uchida, Matip (Escudero 79'), Metzelder, Sarpei (Edu 46') - Kluge, Papadopoulos, Annan - Farfan, Jurado - Raul (Baumjohann 46') 

Goals: 1-0 Robben (6'), 1-1 Badstuber (o.g. 8'), 2-1 Müller (13'), 3-1 Gomez (19'), 4-1 Müller (84')