Bayern march on in German Bundesliga

Berlin, Oct 25: Bayern continued their relentless run after crushing Cologne 4-0 to wrap their 1,000th Bundesliga win while Leverkusen bounced back from a 2-0 deficit to beat Stuttgart 4-3 in the 10th round of the league.

Bundesliga front-runners Bayern Munich reaped their 10th victory in as many games to improve their own league record on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The "Billy Goates" were able to keep the German giants on the distance until the 35th minute when Arjen Robben's opener broke their resistance.

The "Bavarians" gained momentum and doubled the lead through Arturo Vidal, who capitalised on Kingsley Coman's build-up play and square pass to slot home the two-goal lead from 15 metres in the 40th minute.

Josep Guardiola's men retracted after the restart but the hosts were nonetheless able to extend the lead when Robert Lewandowski marked his 13th goal of the season following a set piece by David Alaba on 62 minutes.

Cologne failed to put up some resistance in the closing period and Bayern Munich added the fourth goal of the afternoon as Thomas Mueller converted a foul play penalty to mark his 10th goal in as many games.

With the result, Bayern Munich established a 10-point gap to runner up Dortmund for now whereas Cologne suffered their second straight loss to drop to the 8th place in the standings.

Stuttgart squandered their lead twice against Bayer Leverkusen, who bounced back to snatch a 4-3 victory at home.

Both sides staged an evenly balanced first half therefore the spectators at BayArena had to wait until the 50th minute when Martin Harnik broke the deadlock. The Austrian international used the melee in Leverkusen's defence following a free kick to tap in from close range.

Daniel Didavi doubled the lead for the visitors only four minutes later after he unleashed a left-footed hammer into the bottom right corner. However, despite a two-goal deficit Leverkusen reduced the arrears moments later through Karim Bellarabi who beat Stuttgart goalie Prezemyslaw Tyton with a low shot into the near post corner.

Stuttgart found an answer at the hour mark when Lukas Rupp utilised a Timo Werner assist to make it 3-1 on the scoreboard. It looked liked the Stuttgart's third goal took the wind out of Leverkusen's sails but the "Werkself" remained unfazed and bounced back 4-3 thanks to the goals by Sebastian Boenisch, Javier Hernandez and Admir Mehmedi.

The fifth win of the season move Leverkusen to the 5th place of the standings while Stuttgart slumped into the relegation zone after suffering the seventh loss at the 10th match.

Wolfsburg clinched their first away victory of the season over newly-promoted Darmstadt. The "Wolves" lacked in ideas and penetration and had to wait until the 78th minute when substitute Daniel Caligiuri overcame Wolfsburg's bulwark.

After recording the fourth win of the campaign, Wolfsburg defend their 4th place in the table whilst newly promoted Darmstadt slip to the 10th place.

Elsewhere, Werder Bremen recovered from a five-game losing streak with a 3-1 victory over Mainz. Frankfurt came from behind to move past Hannover 2-1 thanks to the brace by Marc Stendera. Berlin defended their 5th place by courtesy of Mitchell Weiser's 1-0 decider early in the game.

The following games conclude the 10th round of Bundesliga on Sunday: runner-up Dortmund face last placed Augsburg and Monchengladbach clash with third-placed Schalke.