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Moscow - FC Bayern München maintained their 100 percent record in the UEFA Champions League this season and broke a tournament record in the process as they won 3-1 away to PFC CSKA Moscow to remain well on course to top Group D.A first-half goal from Arjen Robben and two more after the restart from Mario Götze and Thomas Müller, either side of a Keisuke Honda spot kick for the hosts, wrapped up the defending champions' tenth straight win in Europe's elite club competition, taking them one clear of the record they held jointly with FC Barcelona going into the match in the snowbound Russia capital.
Robben with the early breakthrough
The game got underway under steady snowfall at the Khimki Arena and, with the thermometer showing -7 Celsius and dropping, the first half-chance of the contest fell to the hosts on six minutes. Zoran Tosic latched onto a Jerome Boateng clearance following a corner before forcing Manuel Neuer into a save that conceded another. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the hosts looked to be acclimatising better to the conditions in the opening phases, but with 17 minutes on the clock it was Bayern who pounced clinically on the first opportunity of note to come their way.Toni Kroos freed up Thomas Müller down the left and he in turn fed Robben a precision pass inside the box which the Dutch no10 drilled first-time past home custodian Igor Akinfeev at the near post – his third goal in the tournament this season. Having made the vital early breakthrough, Bayern started to settle into their now customary short-passing game, although with the half-hour mark approaching they had a let-off when David Alaba involuntarily presented Ahmed Mousa with a sight of goal, only for the 21-year-old Nigerian frontman to thump his shot just over from the edge of the box.
CSKA squander chances
Almost immediately, Thiago then entered the fray in place of Philipp Lahm, the Bayern skipper having evidently strained a thigh muscle on a typical forward surge. The personnel reshuffle had little impact on the general direction of the contest, with Bayern now looking to have a comfortable grip on both the opposition and the seasonal Moscow pitch. Five minutes before the interval Müller came within a hairsbreadth of connecting with Götze's perfectly-weighted ball in from the left corner of the box, but the final chance of the half fell to CSKA at the other end, Musa latching onto Keisuke Honda's backheel flick and getting off a shot of sorts which presented Manuel Neuer with little problem. The FC Bayern keeper should by contrast have had plenty of problems with two gilt-edged opportunities for Honda at the start of the second-half, but the Japanese international midfielder fluffed both of them, first virtually walking the ball into Neuer's hands after a long punt-out from Akinfeev, before scuffing his second effort from point-blank range. Moscow's playmaker then almost made amends with an effort from outside the box which had Neuer at full stretch but instead, it was Bayern who stormed up the pitch to extend their lead.
Penalties at either end
Kroos was the instigator once again, but this time he provided a direct assist as Götze did the rest himself, cutting in from the left and carving a swathe through the home defence before firing a low finish into the far corner. Clinical stuff, but a few minutes further on CSKA got the chance to gain a foothold back in the contest from the penalty spot after Dante handled a shot from Tosic inside the box. Honda stepped up to the mark and finally got his goal, sending Neuer the wrong way. Game on again, but not for long. Three minutes later, with Götze just having rattled the post from a tight angle, it was Bayern's turn to earn a penalty as home left-back Georgi Shchennikov hauled down Robben. Müller confidently dispatched it to restore the visitors' two-goal cushion. Tosic hit the bar going into the final ten minutes as the Moscow outfit tried to rally, but it wasn't enough to prevent the reigning European champions clinching another convincing win to secure that new Champions League record.
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