Bayern Munich inched their way to another Bundesliga title with a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin in the capital. It took 48 minutes for Munich to find a way through a compact backline. But once they did, there was no looking back. Arturo Vidal opened the scoring from outside the box before the excellent Douglas Costa doubled his side's lead.
Pep Guardiola and his men could have clinched another championship on this day. Yet their rivals, Borussia Dortmund, won today putting celebrations on hold for now.
Hertha's defese holds strong
Douglas Costa got Bayern's first shot on target in the seventh minute. He stormed down the middle of the pitch and beat a couple of defenders. Costa's effort though, was a bit poor as he hit it straight at Thomas Kraft.
Thiago Alcántara got involved for the first time in the 21st minute. He had some help with an excellent flick on from Costa, who put him in behind the Hertha defense. Kraft though, was quick off his line to close down any angle as he blocked Alcántara's shot.
Hertha's first half-chance of the match came off of a corner kick. Marvin Plattenhardt delivered a good ball towards the middle of the area. As Niklas Stark rose up to try and meet the cross, it looked as if he got tugged down to the ground. Stark still get his head on the ball, but a Bayern defender blocked it.
Costa was Bayern Munich's most influential footballer in the opening 45 minutes. While standing over a free kick, he whipped his cross with pace into the middle of the area. But there were no teammates making a run onto the end of it as Kraft cleaned up the danger. Peter Pekarik, with three minutes remaining, had the ball near the byline off of a free kick. He proceed to try and curl one from an acute angle towards goal, but failed to get his technique correct.
Visitors score twice in second half
Soon after the halftime interval, Bayern Munich scored. Mario Götze was inside the area but saw Vidal in space outside the penalty box. Vidal unleashed a bullet towards the frame of the goal. As the ball was making its way towards Kraft, it deflected off of the knee of Stark. The deflection forced Kraft to freeze in place and the shot found the back of the net.
Franck Ribéry, the veteran, had his first involvement of the match in the 73rd minute. Douglas Costa sent a floating ball towards the back post which Ribéry was able to meet with his head. The ensuing header though was quite poor and fell into the arms of Kraft.
The visitors put the match to rest with 11 minutes to go. Medhi Benatia lobbed a ball over the top to Douglas Costa on the right flank. The Brazilian took a couple of steps inwards before curling a rocket past Kraft who was rooted to the spot. This was sensational from Costa, one of the best signings in the Bundesliga, and oozed with class.
Coming up
Bayern Munich will have to switch gears towards the Champions League now. They will travel to Spain to take on Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night. The capital club, Hertha BSC, will hope their form can return. The blue and white stripes face Bayer Leverkusen next weekend at the BayArena.