Munich continue recovery with win over Freiburg in Bundesliga

MUNICH - Bayern Munich’s reserves delivered Friday as the Bundesliga champions continued their domestic recovery with a 4-2 victory over SC Freiburg.

Daniel Pranjic fed Martin Demichelis, Mario Gomez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk for the first three goals and Toni Kroos got the other goal for the injury-plagued Munich side.

Bayern improved to a temporary seventh place on 15 points, moving ahead of Freiburg, who scored from Stefan Reisinger and an own goal by Edson Braafheid, on goal difference.

It was Munich’s 10th victory in a row over Freiburg and their third unbeaten game in a row this season.

Mainz 05 top the standings with 24 points ahead of Borussia Dortmund, who take 22 points into their table-topper Sunday in Mainz.

Neither Pranjic nor Demichelis, Gomez and Tymoshchuk are regular starters in Munich, but have played recently as Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery, Miroslav Klose and others have been sidelined with injury for weeks and months.

Munich had a hard time early on but finally broke the deadlock in the 39th when Demichelis headed home Pranjic’s corner kick.

The second half was more entertaining and Munich paved the way to victory when Gomez was on target with a header in the 64th, again after a corner from Pranjic. The Croat completed his assist hat-trick when he also set up Tymoshchuk in the 72nd after the sub Reisinger had pulled one back for the visitors.

Kroos got the fourth off Bastian Schweinsteiger as the champions finally delivered goals after managing just eight in the first nine games of the season.

“We did not play well in the first half but improved in the second,” said Munich coah Louis van Gaal.