Bundesliga: Bayern scores eight goals in Mainz

Left behind by Leverkusen in the title race, Bayern Munich began its confidence boost with a view to the quarter-final of the Champions League in a month with a demonstration on Saturday at home against Mainz (8-1). Nine days before the end of the Bundesliga, Bayern is seven points behind Bayer Leverkusen (57 against 64), which hosts Wolfsburg on Sunday (7:30 p.m.) at the end of the 25th day.

Xabi Alonso's men, who have not lost a single match since the start of the season, a record series for a German club of 35 matches in all competitions, have three huge wildcards in ten matches, to put an end to eleven consecutive seasons of Bavarian hegemony over German football.

After a catastrophic sequence in February, with three consecutive defeats (including one in the league) and only four points out of 12 possible in the Bundesliga, Bayern are slowly raising their heads.

Four days after eliminating Lazio Rome thanks to a successful performance (3-0) and a double from Harry Kane, Bayern did not tremble in its Allianz Arena against Mainz, 17th before the 25th day and first relegated.

As often this season, it was Kane who put the Munich players on the path to victory on Saturday, with a fourth hat-trick in the Bundesliga, after those achieved against Bochum, Darmstadt and Dortmund during the first leg. Like the three previous times, Kane recovered the match ball to add it to his collection.

The captain of the English selection, who also delivered two assists on Saturday, has already reached 30 goals in the German championship (36 with six in the Champions League). He equals the record for a first season in the Bundesliga set during the 1963/64 season by Uwe Seeler with Hamburg SV. Above all, he only needs 11 (over the last nine matches) to equal Robert Lewandowski's record (41 in 2020/21).

Leon Goretzka scored twice (19th and 90th 3), while Thomas Müller, already omnipresent against Lazio, Jamal Musiala and Serge Gnabry, back from a long injury, also participated in the offensive show in the second half (47th, 61st, 66th).

The only scare for the Munich residents came from a missile from Nadiem Amiri, a shot flashed at 115 km/h according to broadcaster Sky, who left Manuel Neuer no chance at the half-hour mark.

Until the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, whose opponent will be known on Friday, Bayern will go to Darmstadt, receive Borussia Dortmund and go to Heidenheim, to continue their recovery and find serenity after turbulent weeks.

In the three-way fight for the last two tickets for the next Champions League, RB Leipzig dominated bottom-placed Darmstadt (2-0) to come back to within seven points of Stuttgart (46 against 53) and put pressure on Borussia Dortmund (44 points) which travels to Bremen on Saturday (6:30 p.m.).