Vincent Kompany’s team selection raised a few eyebrows prior to kick-off, as the Bayern head coach opted to change his entire front three, dropping Kane, Luis Diaz and Michael Olise to the bench and giving Jackson a start through the centre.
Despite the absence of some of the league leaders’ biggest stars, Bayern were clearly the superior side over their visitors from start to finish. Lennart Karl showed flashes of brilliance early on, curling just wide from the edge as the 17-year-old looked to score his third goal in four matches.
It would be Gnabry who opened the scoring. Played through beautifully by Tom Bischof, the 20-year-old’s curling pass was severely misjudged by Jarell Quansah to allow Gnabry in behind. When the German found a clear path through on goal, there would only be one outcome and Bayern had taken a 25th-minute lead.
One would become two just six minutes later, Jackson scoring in the Bundesliga for the first time with a perfectly-placed header from Konrad Laimer’s cross from the right. It was a big moment for Jackson, who had proven his credentials to fill in for Kane in the Bayern attack. He had the ball in the net a second time less than ten minutes later, but was adjudged to have gone slightly early with the goal disallowed for offside.
Just before half-time the game was safe when Bade put through his own net, deflecting in a Raphael Guerrero cross to secure another comfortable victory before the champions had even needed to call upon their in-form attacking trio on the bench.
Jackson could, and maybe should, have had a second from another inch-perfect Laimer delivery, but on this occasion the Senegalese headed just wide of the post. Soon after as the game approached the hour mark, Kompany rang the changes and took off both of his goalscorers alongside Karl, with all of Kane, Diaz and Olise taking to the field to strike further fear into Leverkusen hearts.
The away side came into the game from a possession stand-point at least in the second period, as the game began to slow down into a lull with the three points already secured. But the visitors, last season’s runners-up who currently sit fifth in the division after a challenging start, never truly looked like scoring and did not have a single shot on target until the 80th minute. Christian Kofane sliced wide at the near post when given space in the Bayern penalty area, in a moment which summed up Leverkusen’s day in front of goal. It was another comfortable victory for Bayern, who look very difficult to stop so far this season.
Leverkusen, for their part, have seen their 37-game away unbeaten run in the Bundesliga ended, and emphatically so.Â