Bayern Munich rediscovers its destructive form to knock out Porto
By the 14th minute, Bayern Munich had hope. By the 22nd minute, the Bavarians had the lead.
By halftime, they had Porto wanting to hop on the team plane back to Portugal rather than come back out for the second half.
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Bayern Munich thundered to five goals in the first 40 minutes and beat Porto 6-1 at the Allianz Arena in the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, stomping out any designs of an upset held by the hopelessly overmatched visitors.
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Porto won the first leg 3-1 last week, thanks mostly to a series of defensive catastrophes by Bayern Munich. On Tuesday, Bayern turned the catastrophe toward Porto’s net.
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Playing at a blistering pace right from the opening whistle, Bayern broke through in the 14th minute when Thiago Alcantara headed home a quality cross from Juan Bernat. Eight minutes later, Jérôme Boateng nodded home a tricky header to give his side the aggregate lead on away goals.
The third goal, however – a series of one-touch volleys between Philipp Lahm, Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski – may well be the goal of the competition this season.
Müller scored the fourth goal when his shot from 25 yards out took a fortunate deflection, and Lewandowski added the fifth in the 40th minute with good footwork in the box.
Jackson Martinez gave Porto brief hope with a header in the 73rd minute, but Bayern quickly recovered as Xabi Alonso finished off the game with this late free kick.
This is the latest Champions League mauling perpetrated by Bayern at home this season, with a 7-1 win over Roma in the group stage and a 7-0 rout of Shakhtar Donetsk also on its rap sheet.
What’s more, the club’s current injury crisis appears to be subsiding, with Bastian Schweinsteiger on the bench Tuesday, Arjen Robben's return to training and Franck Ribéry, Javi Martinez and Medhi Benatia due back soon.
Even without those stars, the Bavarians looked unstoppable against Porto. With everyone back healthy, the Champions League trophy could be theirs to lose.
