rampant bayern punish anderlecht published: thursday 6 march 2008, 23.30cet rsc anderlecht 0-5 fc bayern münchen five different players were on target as the visitors handed anderlecht a heaviest home defeat in europe.
fc bayern münchen produced a masterful display to hand rsc anderlecht their heaviest home defeat in european competition and all but seal a place in the uefa cup quarter-finals.
leading scorer although hamit altıntop gave the bundesliga leaders a ninth-minute lead, anderlecht's night only truly took a turn for the worse just before half-time as marcin wasilewski was sent off and luca toni – with a competition-leading seventh goal – doubled the lead. lukas podolski, miroslav klose and fellow substitute franck ribéry also found the net as bayern won 5-0 away for the fourth time in their illustrious european history to make next wednesday's second leg in munich a formality.
red card anderlecht midfielder lucas biglia had already been alert to block a toni effort before turkish international altıntop spotted daniel zítka off his line and lobbed the goalkeeper with a delightful effort from range. things might have been different for les mauves had thomas chatelle not shot against the post after being teed up by guillaume gillet, but that proved to be the home side's major highlight as wasilewski was shown two yellow cards in as many minutes. toni – who had only just been booked to rule him out of the return – swiftly added salt to the wound by volleying past zítka.
ribéry brilliance with the tie there for the taking, bayern were ruthless in the second half – the introductions of klose and ribéry underlining their strength in depth. the frenchman created a third for podolski in the 57th minute following an energetic charge forward and germany striker klose took his uefa cup tally to five this term ten minutes later by sweeping another ribéry assist into the anderlecht net. ribéry capped a terrific cameo with the pick of bayern's goals four minutes from time, curling a free-kick from the edge of the area over the wall and into the top corner at the near post.
