Brilliant Bayern stick nine past hopeless Hamburg

Bayern Munich warmed up for their Champions League clash with Juventus with a 9-2 massacre of Hamburg.
Despite resting some key stars ahead of Tuesday’s clash with the Italian champions, Bayern ran riot against an embarrassingly disinterested Hamburg side who were 5-0 down by half-time.
Claudio Pizarro, who hadn’t scored in the Bundesliga this season before this game and netted only twice in his 31-match career at Chelsea, helped himself to four while Arjen Robben netted twice.
The first two goals were scored by Xherdan Shaqiri and Bastian Schweinsteiger while Franck Ribery came off the bench to get the ninth just a minute after Jeffery Bruma had got Hamburg’s first when the score was 8-0.
Hamburg captain Heiko Westermann headed home the last goal of the game for Hamburg to make it 9-2 but he trudged back to the touchline with an embarrassed look after a goal that was little consolation after such an abject performance.
Bayern are now 20 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund with just 21 points left to play for in the Bundesliga season and can clinch the title next weekend at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Hamburg are usually no pushovers – they are ninth in the Bundesliga and just four points off a potential Champions League spot – but were so pathetic on the night that their best player was arguably their goalkeeper Rene Adler.
Bayern started with Ribery, Thomas Mueller and Mario Mandzukic all on the bench but if Hamburg thought they were going to take it easy they were in for a rude shock.
Shaqiri put the hosts in front after just five minutes with an expertly dispatched low drive and Schweinsteiger made it two in the 19th minute after Philipp Lahm crossed in Robben’s short corner.
The third also came from a corner as Robben whipped the ball in, Dante flicked it on, and Pizarro raced in to fire his first of four.
It was Robben who got the fourth though as he calmly placed a lovely low shot into the corner of the next after a clever flick from Pizarro.
Pizarro then got the fifth just before half-time as he placed it home after Shaqiri’s shot had hit off the post.
You might have thought Bayern would have taken their foot off the gas in the second half but Pizarro and Robben were in no mood for mercy. The latter set up the former for number six in the 52nd minute and the double act was reversed two minutes later as Robben chipped home number seven.
Pizarro got his fourth and Bayern’s eighth in the 68th minute after great build-up play from Ribery and Mueller, who had both come on to join the fun.
The only slight worry for Bayern was that they conceded two goals from headers direct from corners but they were little more than comical asides either side of Ribery getting number nine in the 76th minute as he drilled a low shot into the corner after cutting in from the right.
Sprinkled around all these goals was a bevy of Bayern chances, and Hamburg had their keeper Adler to thank for some fine saves, otherwise Bayern could have beaten their record Bundesliga win – an 11-1 success over Dortmund in 1971.
Still, this was a ruthless, relentless and remarkable night from Bayern.
Juventus can consider themselves suitably warned.