Goals from Arturo Vidal, Kingsley Coman and Sebastian Rode were enough to see Bayern sail past Darmstadt.
Darmstadt find themselves behind despite strong first half
Darmstadt began how they had been playing ever since Dirk Schuster had taken the reigns; with no fear. The Lilies as happy to go forward as they have been in the previous few seasons and were looking extremely lively down the right-hand side. The offside flag prevented Dominik Stroh-Engel from breaking clean through on goal, in what would have been an excellent chance for the hosts.
While there was hope for the home side it was soon to be dashed. Douglas Costa's free-kick didn't have enough bend on it to creep inside the post, although Arturo Vidal's effort moments later most certainly did. The Chilean sent a rasping drive into the back of the net from 25 yards, kissing the post on the way in. The technique and connection were perfect, and showed just why Bayern shelled out so much for his services.
To their credit, Darmstadt didn't lose heart and continued to come forward. Marcel Heller rippled the side-netting at the back post, Konstantin Rausch tested Manuel Neuer from long-range and Stroh-Engel also tried his luck with a speculative effort, in what was a promising response from the home side.
Bayern turn on the style in the second period
The second half began quite quietly in Darmstadt, with neither side able to create any chances of note. Both defences were doing a fine job in thwarting any potential attacks and the home midfield were holding their own against Bayern's established stars. Sandro Wagner was an early substitute in the second period and he could have done much better with a headed chance on the hour mark.
The Lilies were made to pay for not taking their chance and Bayern marched down the other end to make it two-nil. Sebastian Rode burst away down the right flank and looked to have missed out in finding Vidal in the box, only for Kingsley Coman to arrive late and hammer the ball into the bottom corner.
It was to get worse moments later for the home side, who were now feeling the full wrath of Bayern's attack. Sebastian Rode found space down the right hand side with Fabian Holland seemingly absent from his duties. Rode struck the post with his first effort and looked like he'd wasted the chance but the ball bounced back to him and he coolly slotted into an open net, which put the result beyond doubt for Bayern.