Berlin: Thomas Mueller shone as Bayern Munich romped to a 6-2 semi-final win at Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday to reach the German Cup final and keep their treble dreams alive.
Leverkusen are up to third in the Bundesliga, but trail champions Bayern by a massive 24 points and the gulf in the league table showed up clearly in this semi-final.
“We were very effective and the team worked really well together,” said Mueller after Bayern’s masterclass in attacking football.
“We really deserved it, the team performance was great.
“Of course we want more (titles), we can feel that something is possible this season,” he added as Bayern eye winning the Cup for the 19th time in the club’s history.
Mueller, the man of the match, scored twice and helped set up the visitors’ first goal for Javi Martinez after only three minutes.
Robert Lewandowski added a second, his 36th goal in 40 games this season, when left unmarked in the area as Munich raced into a 2-0 lead after just nine minutes at the BayArena in Leverkusen.
Bayer captain Lars Bender gave the hosts hope with a 16th-minute header while the Bayern defence appealed for an offside call which never came.
Leverkusen’s Germany winger Karim Bellarabi could have equalised when he twice forced Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich into reflex saves, but it stayed 2-1 at the break.
— AFP
