Franck Ribery Finally Returns; Bayern and Werder Provide a Thriller

Bayern beat Werder to top the table for a day on Saturday night at the Weser Stadion, 3-2 prior to Leverkusen's 3-0 win against Hoffenheim. This match can be looked at in two ways: Bremen's incapability to defend or Bayern's incapability to finish off their chances.

Mario Gomez is currently perhaps the leader in Bavaria for the number of clear cut chances missed. However, following the game at the Weser, Arjen Robben perhaps beat Mario Gomez in the number of chances missed.

The first of Robben's missed chances came early in the first half. Mark van Bommel played a wonderful through ball to him and he hit the post with the goal gaping. Ivica Olic found himself running towards goal following a slip-up by Werder defender Clemens Fritz. Tim Wiese made a wonderful safe to deny him.

That said, Werder drew first blood. Marko Marin played a beautiful ball to Aaron Hunt in the penalty area who duly scored, giving Werder the lead. Thomas Muller equalized for Bayern shortly afterwards after being played in by Bastian Schweinsteiger.

Bayern then went into the lead through Ivica Olic. A shot from Arjen Robben was parried by Wiese and the ball kindly fell to Olic who scored. (I am glad it didn't fall to Gomez despite his undeniable quality.) In the second half, Hugo Almeida equalized for Werder with a wonderful effort. Arjen Robben had already missed a hatful of chances by then.

Yet, it was the Dutchman who had the final word on the night as he scored the winner on his 26th birthday. A shot that was perhaps meant to be a cross went into Wiese's net; it looked eerily similar to one of Cristiano Ronaldo's free kicks.

He ran towards Van Gaal to celebrate; the coach, in his attempt to run away from his fellow Dutchman fell on the ground. Arjen Robben had the last laugh as Van Gaal had to hug him. Franck Ribery came on and played for about half an hour after 112 days without a game.

What surprised me though was Van Gaal's decision to bring on Miroslav Klose as late as the 80th minute. Considering that the Weser was Klose's home ground prior to his move to the Allianz Arena, the decision seemed strange. Of course, Bayern were winning 3-2 by then and there really wasn't too much need for the Polish-born German though.

Louis Van Gaal was quite pleased with his team's performance despite their inability to finish off most of their chances. This is what he had to say:

“I’m very happy coach today. Werder Bremen are a team who take risks, and we took advantage of that on this occasion. I was pleased we were so keen to attack, but unfortunately, we failed to make the most of our chances."

I will end with Arjen Robben's words which perhaps best summed up the match:

"We might have scored ten today. We had so many chances but didn’t make the most of them, myself included. I could even have overtaken [the league’s leading scorer] Kießling today. Sometimes the easy ones just won’t go in—and the difficult ones do.”