Hannover 96 vs. Bayern Munich: Winners and Losers from Bundesliga Game
Bayern Munich had to be patient and come from behind to take an eventual 3-1 victory over Hannover 96 at HDI-Arena in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Hiroshi Kiyotake scored the game's opening goal, with Xabi Alonso equalising for Bayern from a free-kick just moments later. A Thomas Muller brace in the second half, the first from the penalty spot, helped the league leaders toward a fifth consecutive league win.
Here are all our biggest winners and losers from the game.
Winner: Hiroshi Kiyotake
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The Hannover attacking midfielder might have ended on the losing side, but he put in an excellent display again to further prove he could be comfortably shining for a much bigger team than Hannover can aspire to be.
The Japanese playmaker was a star both in an attacking and a link role, beating Rafinha and Dante a few times in the first half down the flank and popping up centrally for his goal, a well-taken effort showing composure and technique to beat a defender and the goalkeeper.
Kiyotake will no doubt be in big demand this summer.
Loser: Dante
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Dante was selected in the starting XI for Bayern Munich, but his afternoon lasted precisely 31 minutes.
In that time he had already been exposed twice at the back, being outpaced and hustled off the ball by Artur Sobiech to almost concede a clear shooting chance, before later being unable to get anywhere near Hiroshi Kiyotake for the opening goal of the game.
His movement, agility and reading of the game were severely poor, and when Pep Guardiola opted to make an early tactical switch, it was no surprise to see Dante get the hook.
Winner: Franck Ribery
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The French attacker started the match on the bench, but after replacing the utterly ineffective Mario Gotze early in the second half, he changed the flow of the game for Bayern, gave their attacking play far more of a direct threat and was involved in their best moves.
His most telling contribution came at 2-1, sprinting down the left to beat a defender and digging out a perfect cross to assist Thomas Muller's second goal, but he also helped win the penalty with a clever knock-down toward Robert Lewandowski minutes earlier.
The winger showed great vision and awareness in his passing to get Bayern firmly on the front foot.
Loser: Arjen Robben
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It just wasn't Arjen Robben's day.
The Dutchman saw plenty of the ball in the first half and was his team's main outlet down the right-hand side as they looked to pick up the early tempo, but with two or three men on him at every turn there was little chance for him to have the impact he would have wanted.
Robben saw decisions go against him, including one where he wanted a penalty for a fall inside the box, while later in the game as Hannover perhaps got frustrated, he was subject to a number of crunching challenges from behind.
All in all, this is not a game he'll remember fondly.
Winner: Thomas Muller
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Thomas Muller took himself to 11 goals for the Bundesliga season with his brace on Saturday, including a third penalty of the campaign.
He wasn't really in the game from the start, but once Robert Lewandowski came on to take over the main striker's role and Muller could drop deeper to get involved in buildup play, he was largely irrepressible with his clever movement, one-touch link play and ability to avoid marking by the defence.
"We practice penalties with the national team from time to time, so (Hannover goalkeeper) Ron-Robert Zieler knows me a bit—but apparently not well enough," Muller told FCBayern.de. "Before I took it, I was wondering if I should do something differently. But I’ve done well with my system up to now so I didn’t change anything."
His penalty was well taken, but the second goal was the undoubted moment of the day: a fine run into the box and a powerful leap and header into the far corner. Bayern's match-winner again.
