Bayern Munich 8 - 0 Hamburger - Bayern hit Hamburg for eight

Posted Sunday, February 15, 2015 by PA

Bayern Munich inflicted another humiliating defeat on Hamburg at the Allianz Arena to remain firmly on course to retain their Bundesliga title.

Two years after thrashing Hamburg 9-2 at home, Bayern went goal crazy again as braces from Thomas Muller, Arjen Robben and Mario Gotze plus further strikes from Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribery saw the reigning champions run out 8-0 winners.

The victory keeps Bayern eight points clear at the top of the Bundesliga ahead of Wolfsburg, who also won on Saturday, while also setting them up in style for the return to Champions League action against Shakhtar Donetsk in midweek.

The only real surprise was how long it took Bayern to take the lead, with over 20 minutes required before Rafinha's cross hit Ronny Marcos on his arm inside the penalty area to earn the home side a spot-kick.

Bayern's designated penalty taker Muller stepped up to beat Jaroslav Drobny for the first time.

Just two minutes later, the game already looked over for Hamburg as Muller's shot was parried by Drobny to Gotze, who lifted the rebound into the roof of the net from close range.

Robben added a third 10 minutes before the break with a typical incursion onto his left foot and a shot which went in off the far post.

Hamburg fans would have been forgiven for thinking back to March 2013 when their side came away from the Allianz Arena on the wrong end of that nine-goal mauling, as damage limitation became the objective for Josef Zinnbauer's men.

It did not look good when Robben added a fourth early in the second half, beating Drobny inside his near post with a right-foot shot when Marcos was expecting him to cut inside.

Lewandowski was denied a goal minutes later when he headed Robben's shot in, albeit from an offside position.

Muller added the fifth in the 55th minute, curling in his shot from 20 yards from Bastian Schweinsteiger's pass, before he set up Lewandowski to make it 6-0 within 60 seconds.

Artjoms Rudnevs saw a goal ruled out for offside at the other end, before substitute Ribery netted Bayern's seventh after Lewandowski was denied by Drobny.

Gotze added an eighth with just a few minutes remaining, compounding Hamburg's woes after the Bavarians had shown a certain amount of leniency for 20 minutes.