Five observations from Bayern Munich’s 2-1 Champions League win against PSV Eindhoven

The first half was marred by referee mistakes.

The referee’s assistants certainly had a difficult first half out there. PSV’s opening goal from Santiago Arias should never have counted, as replays showed that Arias was a good yard offside on the play. On the other end, his partner did not call a clear penalty against PSV’s Hector Moreno for bear-hugging Robert Lewandowski to the ground on a corner kick. Then, he called a penalty against Andres Guardado for a non-intentional handball. It wasn’t a good first half for the referees.

There’s nothing that we saw here that will slow down the calls for instant technology help on things as simple as offside.

Thomas Müller was active, but there was no end product.

To start the 2016-17 season, Thomas Müller has been in a funk. Carlo Ancelotti’s formations are designed to accentuate Bayern’s fantastic wingers and not a player of Müller’s qualities. There’s no question that he’s struggled to find the form that he had last season under Pep Guardiola, but today he was more active than he’s been in some time. Müller was involved in a lot of Bayern’s best attacks and managed to find space behind Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben. He also nearly scored in the second half, but Hector Moreno made a sliding block to keep Müller off the board.

The goals are going to come for Müller at some point, but he needs to find that form before Bayern are looking at a healthy winger stable.

When Robert Lewandowski is on his game, you can’t stop him.

There are a few truly great goalscorers in the world’s game, and Robert Lewandowski is definitely at the top of that list. He was on fire for Bayern today, grabbing two goals and hitting the post and crossbar on another. Lewandowski also drew a penalty that wasn’t called by the referee. Late in the match, he nearly cemented his hat trick when he lightly chipped the ball over his defender before firing past the PSV goalkeeper. Unfortunately, his shot clipped the crossbar and stayed out.

If Bayern can keep Lewandowski firing on all cylinders in the spring, that Champions League trophy might be on it’s way back to Munich.

Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman are near-unfair weapons off of the bench.

Carlo Ancelotti brought in both Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman to change the match in the second half, and it worked perfectly. Their dynamic speed forced PSV on their heels for the rest of the match. Costa’s combination with David Alaba wide on the left for the second goal was beautiful to watch, with both players using their speed to cause the opposition to lose them in around the area.

When (if?) everyone is healthy, Bayern will be boasting an attacking corps of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Müller, Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Douglas Costa, and Kingsley Coman. Few, if any, clubs in Europe can compete with the amazing options that Ancelotti will have at his disposal.

Philipp Lahm takes charge.

There was a moment late in the second half when Bayern was awarded a free kick at the top of the penalty area after Arturo Vidal was fouled. The trio of Robert Lewandowski, David Alaba, and Philipp Lahm stood over the ball for Bayern. Sitting on a hat trick, one would think that Lewandowski was going to get the opportunity to smash home his hat trick. However, a brief discussion ensued, and the cameras just happened to be zoomed in on the players at the time. My interpretation of the events was that Herr Kapitän told Lewandowski that he was to assist him in setting up the ball for Alaba to take a shot on target.

That very well may not have been the discussion, but that’s the way it came across to me.