PLAYER RATINGS | Heidenheim 0-4 Bayern Munich – Harry Kane on target as records flow | OneFootball

Sunday afternoon and the final Bundesliga game before the winter break has been and gone with 17th placed Heidenheim having hoped to cause a major upset in hosting league leaders Bayern Munich.

Despite sitting in the relegation zone, Heidenheim have picked up form in recent weeks with impressive wins over Freiburg and Union Berlin. The visitors meanwhile are of course unbeaten in the Bundesliga this season with 12 wins from 14 matches, one of those two draws coming last week at home to bottom club Mainz.

Both teams made five changes from last weekends games due to a combination of players away at the African Cup of Nations, injuries and suspensions. Most notably for Bayern, Manuel Neuer and Joshua Kimmich were not involved and were thus replaced by Jonas Urbig and Raphaël Guerreiro.

Vincent Kompany’s side dominated the opening stages of the game and took the lead from a corner after just 14 minutes. Jonathan Tah hung himself up at the far post and his nodded header back across goal was poked home from point blank range by Josip Stanišić as the Croatian bagged his second Bundesliga goal of the season.

Bayern doubled their lead on the half hour mark after a brilliant cross in from Lennart Karl resulted in a goalmouth scramble which eventually found Michael Olise a yard from goal to score his 7th of the season.

Despite neither goal being vintage Bayern, they were very comfortable in the first half and went into the break with their 2-0 lead intact. Heidenheim made two changes at half time in an attempt to turn the game around, bringing on Stefan Schimmer and Arijon Ibrahimović for Luka Kerber and Mathias Honsak.

Heidenheim survived a huge let off early in the second half as Harry Kane rattled the post with a shot from the right side of the six-yard box, uncharacteristically from the England captain. Moments later, Schimmer rattled the crossbar to give Bayern a wake-up call.

Diant Ramaj survived an embarrassing moment when he was robbed of the ball in his own six-yard box by Kane, by the time Kane had the ball under control, the Heidenheim defence had recovered and managed to clear the ball away.

Ibrahimović then squandered the home sides best chance of the game after a superb cut back from Sirlord Conteh, the on-loan Bayern man fired his effort well over Jonas Urbig’s crossbar. Schimmer then forced the first save out of Jonas Urbig as he was picked out at the back post by fellow substitute Mikkel Kaufmann.

Bayern wrapped the game up with five minutes to go through a Luis Diaz header after Stanišić’s cross put it on a silver platter for the Colombian winger. Bayern added a fourth through Harry Kane who finally grabbed his goal two minutes into second half stoppage time. Easily the pick of the bunch too, superbly worked in the build-up before Kane twice dropped his shoulder to create himself the space to easily finish past Ramaj.

A deserved win in the end for Bayern and a result that does not come as a surprise to anyone. Kompany’s men dominated the first half and the majority of the second half. Only for a short while in the second half did it look as though Heidenheim could have found a way back into the game, but for all their efforts forced only one save from Jonas Urbig.

Heidenheim 0-4 Bayern Munich | Player Ratings

Heidenheim: Diant Ramaj (5) – Marnon Busch (6), Patrick Mainka (6), Benedikt Gimber (6) – Omar Haktab Traore (5), Jan Schöppner (5), Niklas Dorsch (6), Luka Kerber (5), Jonas Föhrenbach (6) – Mathias Honsak (5), Marvin Pieringer (5)

Others: Arijon Ibrahimović (5), Sirlord Conteh (6), Stefan Schimmer (6), Mikkel Kaufmann (-), Julian Niehues (-)

Bayern Munich: Jonas Urbig (6) – Josip Stanišić (8), Dayot Upamecano (6), Jonathan Tah (6), Hiroki Ito (7) – Leon Goretzka (6), Raphaël Guerreiro (7) – Michael Olise (7), Lennart Karl (6), Luis Díaz (7) – Harry Kane (7)

Others: Serge Gnabry (7), David Daiber (-), Alphonso Davies (-), Wisdom Mike (-), Cassiano Kiala (-)

GGFN Player of the Match | Josip Stanišić (8)

Despite the scoreline suggesting a performance of attacking excellence from the Bavarian giants, it was a far cry from vintage Bayern this afternoon. However, defender Josip Stanišić stood out not only for his ever-consistent defensive performance but also for the freedom afforded to him by head coach Vincent Kompany, similar to how Konrad Laimer operates in the same position. A goal and an assist were just rewards for the Croatian.

GGFN | Harry Good