Finishing the job.. and unto the Champions League

So Bayern after winning 2-0 at home, had to go Zurich which itself was a short trip to simply not not loose by more than 2 goals.  Simply keeping a clean sheet would do the job and that's what Bayern did.. along with scoring a goal the 6th minute thanks to Mario Gomez.  That's the 5th clean sheet in 6 matches so far this season.  Bayern started out well, the first 20 minutes attacked but due to the early goal, they started to relax afterwards and the match itself wasn't necessarily too interesting.  Ribery while quiet the first half, exploded the 2nd half and really should have scored or assisted a goal, but poor finishing along with other players not being clinical enough to score his assists, he ended up with nothing.  Still it is encouraging, but we will need him in that form the entire 90 minutes, not just the 2nd half when the opposition may be fatigued.

Gomez took a knock right at the end of the first half and got taken off for Petersen.  Rafinha was rested, and Robben on the bench as he was injured but could still play.  Bayern simply didn't want to risk him unless they had to.  So far Jupp's "rotation policy" has worked very well.  Actually, I would not be surprised at all if I saw Tymoschuk starting over Gustavo this weekend against FCK for precisely this reason.  This also encourages players that aren't starters to give it more than usual, since they get to play more during the season and have chances to impress.

A team goal worth winning a match with

Bayern didn't look too threatened by Zurich, especially in open play as there were very few chances made.  However during set pieces the team looked confused and was making mistakes.  Neuer cleared a ball with his wrist as if he was playing volleyball, but the ball should have been cleared before reaching the target.  He also punched the ball off another set piece and it fell to a Zurich player just outside the 18 yard box, but he shot wide.  Otherwise while secure, Neuer needs to instill confidence in our defense the entire 90 minutes and mistakes like that can prove costly vs clinical opponents like United or Barcelona.  Another set piece was cleared by Boateng, but the ball fell to the ground kindly to Bayern as it could have been an easy tap in on another day.  Even against Wolfsburg, Helmes scored a legitimate goal called wrongly offsides..  yeah you guessed it, from yet another set piece!  Heynckes will need to get to work on this but otherwise we can look to the upcoming match vs FCK after a 4 game winning streak, with confidence.

You can view the match discussion here