Bayern Power Past Stuttgart in Dominant 5-1 Victory

Aleksandar Pavlovic walked off the pitch sounding like a man who had just seen a familiar script play out again.

"We gave everything from the start," he told Sky. Stuttgart, he said, often "fade a little in the middle of the second half and no longer have quite as much energy. That was the case again today. And we just keep going, never stop and always score our goals."

On the evidence of a ruthless 5-1 Bayern win, it was hard to argue.

Stuttgart’s bold start, Bayern’s cold response

VfB Stuttgart came to play. Brave, front-foot, and for 15 minutes they went toe to toe with the champions. They pressed high, they bit into duels, they refused to be cowed by the Allianz Arena stage.

Then Bayern found their rhythm.

Once the hosts settled, the control was almost total. The breakthrough arrived in the 21st minute, Dayot Upamecano stepping up to put Bayern in front and tilt the game firmly their way. From there, the champions dictated tempo and territory, forcing Stuttgart deeper and deeper.

Hoeneß’s side clung on, though, and reached the break still in the game.

Stuttgart strike back – and get blown away

The second half began with a jolt. Barely back out of the dressing room, Stuttgart hit Bayern with a surprise equaliser. Josha Vagnoman struck in the 52nd minute, and for a brief moment the away end believed something special might be brewing.

That hope barely lasted three minutes.

The response from Bayern was brutal. Michael Olise restored the lead in the 55th minute, and the pressure immediately cranked up again. Stuttgart wobbled. Vagnoman, the man who had given them life, then turned the ball into his own net in the 58th minute to make it 3-1. From parity to a two-goal deficit in six chaotic minutes.

The pattern from there was familiar: Bayern hunting, Stuttgart hanging on.

Late in the game, with VfB exhausted and stretched, the scoreline swelled. Pavlovic got the reward his performance deserved in the 82nd minute, adding Bayern’s fourth. Luis Diaz then applied the final touch in stoppage time, striking in the 90+2 minute to complete a resounding 5-1.

Stuttgart had started bravely. They finished chasing shadows.

Undav’s blunt verdict: “Eight or nine” was possible

Deniz Undav did not bother dressing it up.

Stuttgart’s new captain stood in front of the cameras and spelled out just how bad it could have been without his goalkeeper, Fabian Bredlow.

"If Fabi had not had such an outstanding day today, you would have conceded eight or nine here," Undav admitted. "They play out their chances right to the end, while we had four or five situations from which chances could have arisen, but in which we made the wrong decisions."

No excuses, no spin. Just the acknowledgement of a gulf.

Undav called the two matches against Bayern "bonus games in the season." This one, he lamented, had become "so clear-cut" that even that framing felt generous.

Lights out at half-time – literally

As if Stuttgart did not have enough to deal with on the pitch, the interval brought a bizarre twist.

At half-time, parts of the stadium were suddenly plunged into darkness. "The lights went out," Sebastian Hoeneß confirmed to Sky afterwards, pointing to what appeared to be a power cut.

"There was no more light, but it was still bright enough, we could still see each other, we did not trip over. So everything was fine," he said, brushing off the incident with a wry smile.

On the football itself, Hoeneß was far less relaxed.

"We have to improve, no question," he insisted. Bayern, he pointed out, "will still beat many other teams here, probably by an even bigger margin than us, but we still have to have the ambition to play better."

For Bayern, this was another emphatic home statement. For Stuttgart, a stark reminder: against this machine, even an “outstanding” goalkeeper and a brave start might not be enough to keep the score respectable over 90 minutes.