BAYERN Munich romped to a 5-0 win at St Pauli on Saturday, breaking a 54-year Bundesliga goalscoring record and moving to within touching distance of a 35th league crown.
Leon Goretzka’s 53rd-minute goal, Bayern’s second of the match, brought up 102 league goals this season, breaking a previous mark set by the Bavarian giants in 1971-72.
Top scorer Harry Kane was left on the bench but Jamal Musiala, Michael Olise, Nicolas Jackson and Raphael Guerreiro joined Goretzka on the scoresheet as Bayern pulled 12 points clear of Borussia Dortmund, who lost to Bayer Leverkusen earlier on Saturday.
With five matches remaining this season, defending champions Bayern can win the title as early as next week at home against Stuttgart.
Mindful of Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid, Bayern left Kane, Luis Diaz, Dayot Upamecano and Jonathan Tah on the bench.
The missing firepower mattered little as Musiala headed the visitors in front with nine minutes gone.
Early in the second half, Goretzka turned the ball in from close range to best a record the Bavarians set over half a century ago with a side featuring club legends Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Mueller.
Olise added another just a minute later. Kane replaced Jackson, who got one of his own and Guerreiro scored late to round out the victory and up the record to 105.
Robert Andrich hit a long-range strike late in the first half as Leverkusen became just the second team to beat Dortmund in the league this season with a 1-0 away victory.
Dortmund, whose two previous defeats this season came against Bayern, remain eight points clear in second place despite their four-game winning streak coming to an end.
A day after extending his deal at the club to 2031, Nico Schlotterbeck received a smattering of boos and whistles from the home fans amid reports he had a release clause for this summer inserted into his contract.
“We’re really happy Schlotti extended,” centre-back partner Waldemar Anton told DAZN. “He didn’t deserve the boos. That hurts the team; everyone in the stands needs to know that. It’s nonsense and it’s not something we can accept.”
