(Football news) Bayern Munich got back to their usual dominant best as they struck three times in the first half to ease past Union Berlin 3-0 on Sunday to confirm their status as title favourites and leave the capital rivals with their first league loss of the year as they are now three points behind. Bayern bounced back from last week’s loss to Borussia Monchengladbach, delivering a perfect first-half performance that kept them in first place on 46 points, ahead of Borussia Dortmund on goal difference. 

There was more good news for the Bavarian giant with forward Sadio Mane making his comeback from injury after more than three months as a second-half substitute following his injury in November. Bayern hosted Paris Saint-Germain on March 8 for their Champions League round of 16 return leg as they started this match, delivering punch after punch in a fierce at the start, giving their opponents no chance for a comeback. The champions were in complete control with about 70% possession as Muller should have scored but he failed to connect in front of goal after superb work from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting in the fifth minute.

Choupo-Moting took matters into his own hands when he looped his header from a Kingsley Coman cross over goalkeeper Frederik Ronnow for the lead. The Cameroon striker scored for the first time against Union and now has found the back of the net against every current team in the Bundesliga. Coman this time turned scorer, rounding the keeper to slot in their second before Jamal Musiala put the icing on the cake when he turned in a Muller cutback in stoppage time of the first half to kill off the game and celebrate his 20th birthday with his 11th league goal of the season

Union had won five of their six previous league games in 2023 to remain in the title race but were on the backfoot after the break as well and they had their keeper Ronnow to thank for keeping the score low with a string of outstanding saves. Freiburg drew 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen to drop to fifth place on 41 points while Union dropped to 3rd with 43 points.

“This was a very active game,” said Bayern’s Thomas Muller, who played his 650th match for the club in all competitions. “It is this activity that we need in order to play our game. We combined really well and moved well. Now we have to keep delivering every week. It was a small start to the way we want to play football.”

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