Bayern Munich to visit Cologne for Bundesliga tie

Berlin, March 3 (IANS) Fresh from their 3-0 German Cup quarter-final win over Schalke, Bayern Munich will visit Cologne in Saturday's Bundesliga match.

The 23rd round of Bundesliga football league action will start with second-placed RB Leipzig play at FC Augsburg on Friday with a hope to close the five-point gap on leaders Bayern, who have a total of 53 points from 16 wins, five draws and just one loss, reports Xinhua news agency.

Working toward their fifth Bundesliga title in as many seasons, the 25-time league champions Bayern showed their dominant power with an 8-0 rout of Hamburg last weekend and then a comfortable win in the German Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Bayern basically nailed the German Cup semifinal ticket just after 30 minutes as Robert Lewandowski broke the deadlock just three minutes into the game. Lewandowski's cross to the far post found Thiago Alcantara, who nodded home from six meters on the 16th minute.

Schalke were unable to put up some resistance whereas Bayern tripled the lead through Lewandowski, who sealed his brace after Ribery's build-up work with 29 minutes played.

The "Royal Blues" piled on the pressure after the restart but all their efforts remained harmless as they were never able to threat Bayern Munich's well-positioned defence.

Things went from bad to worse in the 77th minute as Schalke's defender Holger Badstuber received his marching orders after seeing his second yellow card.

In the other match, Monchengladbach booked their berth for the last four as well, after edging out Hamburg 2-1.

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