The Albany Gazette - Sane double keeps five-star Bayern perfect, Marseille topple Sporting

But Group D leaders Sporting Lisbon paid for goalkeeping errors in a 4-1 defeat at Marseille which gave the French team their first win of the campaign.

Convincing in Milan against Inter and at home against Barcelona, Bayern shrugged off the absence of Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Mueller, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday.

With nine points, Julian Nagelsmann's side have almost booked their ticket to the knockout phase, with rivals Inter Milan and Barcelona facing off on Tuesday and next week.

German international Sane struck from a distance after seven minutes past a passive Czech defense, adding a second five minutes after the break.

Between Sane's two goals, Serge Gnabry added a second on 13 minutes following a counter-attack led by Alphonso Davies, Jamal Musiala and Leon Goretzka, before Sadio Mane scored Bayern's third goal after 21 minutes.

It was a first Champions League goal for ex-Liverpool forward Mane with the German giants.

Mane then set up Sane for his brace to move top of the Champions League scorers chart with four goals, just ahead of Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Robert Lewandowski, who have three each.

Substitute Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting came off the bench at half time and added the fifth just before the hour mark.

Six-time European champions Bayern made Champions League history by going 31 consecutive group games unbeaten.

In Marseille, Igor Tudor's men got their first win in Europe this season and just the second of the last 18 meetings in the competition.

Playing behind closed doors in the Velodrome stadium after incidents against Eintracht Frankfurt, Marseille fell behind after just 51 seconds following a quick-fire Francisco Trincao goal.

Tudor was furious, having already shown his displeasure at the delayed kickoff of 20 minutes after the Sporting players' bus got caught in traffic, and Jonathan Clauss going off injured.

But the Croat quickly forgot the nightmare start, with errors from Sporting's veteran Spanish goalkeeper Antonio Adan, gifting the hosts two goals.

Adnan first completely missed two clearances, allowing Alexis Sanchez (13th) and Amine Harit (16th) to score. He then received a red card for an incomprehensible hand outside his area (23rd).

His replacement Franco Israel did no better, missing his exit on a corner, offering a goal to Leonardo Balerdi (28th), before conceding to Chancel Mbemba (85th).

The Uruguayan goalkeeper now has the pressure to replacing the automatically suspended Adan in the return match on October 12.

(G.Gruner--BBZ)