England captain, Harry Kane, scored a hat-trick as defending champions Bayern Munich began the Bundesliga season by thrashing RB Leipzig.
It took 27 minutes for the hosts to break the deadlock when Michael Olise sent a powerful strike into the far corner after the ball dropped invitingly into his path.
Serge Gnabry was instrumental in the build-up to that goal and also the second five minutes later as the German picked out Luis Diaz after an excellent passing routine.
The Colombian forward rifled an effort in off the underside of the crossbar for his first Bundesliga goal since his summer arrival from Liverpool.
Gnabry’s excellence was apparent again for Bayern’s third just before the break, tricking the Leipzig defence into thinking he was about to shoot before teeing up Olise instead to thunder home.
Kane got his first of the night in the 64th minute, cutting inside to round off a swift counter-attack and tuck an effort past Peter Gulacsi.
The visitors thought they had a goal back soon after, but substitute Antonio Nusa’s goal was disallowed as the ball was rolling when a free-kick in the build-up was taken.
Leipzig’s luck only got worse, with Kane whipping an expert effort inside the far post from the edge of the box to add a fifth goal to Bayern’s tally.
He sealed a dominant success for his side when he netted his third in the 77th minute, a beleaguered Leipzig defence unable to keep up with Bayern’s running, leaving Kane unmarked and able to slot home.
With their first game of the season, Vincent Kompany’s side have delivered a message to the rest of the Bundesliga – Bayern are as strong as ever.
They were superior in every aspect from front to back, across the whole game, and left Leipzig ragged in a vain attempt to stop their attacking stampede.
On the wings, Bayern shone. Olise and full-back Konrad Laimer doubled up on the right, overlapping to beat the visitors’ defence and carve out openings.
Their efforts constantly stretched Leipzig, got Olise into the right spaces to get two goals of his own and allowed the rest of their attacking line to work their magic in the middle.
Kane sat deeper than a traditional striker, but was the same threat as ever, timing his runs to perfection to latch on to Bayern’s intricate passing moves and deliver the clinical touch when needed.
Leipzig were sloppy, misplaced their passes and were not switched on to the home side’s runs. Gnabry and Joshua Kimmich enjoyed their superiority going forwards, repeatedly gifted the space to display their talents on the ball.
Leipzig’s back four was simply not good enough to cope, but even if they had extra numbers in defence they never looked like they would have been able to stop Bayern’s ruthless attacking machine.
This is a new-look Leipzig side, guided by a new boss in Ole Werner, and it’s clear they are very much a work in progress.
