WOLFSBURG: Bayern’s team celebrates with a mock-trophy becoming the new German champion after the German first division Bundesliga football match between VfL Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich. —AFP

BERLIN: Bayern Munich were crowned Bundesliga champions for the fifth straight season yesterday after Robert Lewandowski scored twice in their 6-0 thrashing of 10-man Wolfsburg. After second-placed RB Leipzig had earlier been held to a goalless draw by Ingolstadt, Bayern wrapped up the title as victory at Wolfsburg left them ten points clear with three games left. “Five times in a row, that’s unbelievable. We completely deserve to be champions,” Bayern’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told Sky after the club secured their 27th league title. The league triumph is consolation for Wednesday’s 3-2 German Cup semi-final defeat at home to Borussia Dortmund, which robbed coach Carlo Ancelotti the chance of emulating predecessor Pep Guardiola with the domestic double in his first season. Bayern were barely made to work for their win as David Alaba drilled home a trademark free-kick on 19 minutes to put the visitors 1-0 up after a foul on Thomas Mueller. Lewandowski doubled the lead on 36 minutes when Kingsley Coman’s cross was flicked on by Mueller and the Poland hot-shot fired home from 16 meters out. He bagged his second and Bayern’s third goal just before the half-time whistle after Coman delivered another cross unopposed from the left wing to make it 3-0. The floodgates opened late on as Arjen Robben netted on 66 minutes before Wolfsburg’s Luiz Gustavo, a former Bayern player, was sent off for a second booking on 78 minutes.

NUMERICAL ADVANTAGE

Bayern exploited their numerical advantage as Mueller banged home Lewandowski’s final pass before Joshua Kimmich hit their third. Bayern’s title win was made possible by Leipzig’s draw at the Red Bull Arena, where Ingolstadt defender Alfredo Morales was sent off with four minutes left to play. Dortmund, who face Eintracht Frankfurt in the German Cup final on May 27, hold onto third place, which would mean a direct Champions League place next season, despite their goalless draw at home to Cologne. Both Dortmund Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the league’s top-scorer with 27 goals, and Cologne’s Anthony Modeste, who has 23 league goals, drew blanks at Signal Iduna Park. Hoffenheim, coached by Julian Nagelsmann, 29, the youngest coach in Bundesliga history, can leapfrog Dortmund if they beat Eintracht in Frankfurt today. Werder Bremen’s remarkable finish to the season continues as they earned a 2-0 win to home to Hertha Berlin to stay sixth. Bremen remain on course for a Europa League place having risen from bottom in September after losing their first four games. Werder striker Max Kruse’s dream April continued as he netted Bremen’s second after Fin Bartels’s opener for his eighth goal in six games this month. Bremen are now unbeaten in their last 11 games. Mainz remain just a point from the bottom three after Japan striker Yoshinori Muto scored their consolation goal in a 2-1 home defeat as Lars Stindl and Nico Schulz scored for Borussia Moenchengladbach. Bottom side Darmstadt again delayed their relegation with a 3-0 win at home to Freiburg. Torsten Frings-coached Darmstadt picked up their third straight victory thanks to goals by Felix Platte, Jerome Gondorf and Sven Schipplock. Darmstadt are still eight points from safety with three games left. —AFP