"That's the FC Bayern I'm familiar with, an FC Bayern demonstrating what they're capable of", said sporting director Uli Hoeneß in the wake of Wednesday's 4-0 demolition of Frankfurt in their own back yard.

More wins required

That said, Hoeneß was then quick to focus attention on the two vital games upcoming: Saturday's Bundesliga trip to struggling VfB Stuttgart and the Champions League return against Girondins Bordeaux next Tuesday. "We need to get a run going", he stated. A run of victories of course: at Bayern, progressing in the cup is no compensation for losing ground either in the league or in Europe's premier club competition.

The manner of the performance in Frankfurt's Commerzbank Arena did however raise hopes that the Munich outfit are on the way back to something approaching top form. And it was the forward line, above all, who impressed.

Praise for Klose

Mirsolav Klose ended a personal goal drought to get the visitors off the mark in the 14th minute and promptly bagged a second five minutes later. For good measure, the Germany front-man then set up Thomas Müller perfectly for Bayern's third, to kill the game off as a contest with less than half an hour played. Luca Toni then rounded out the scoring, and a good evening's work for the strikers, with a diving header in the 52nd.

As coach Louis van Gaal explained afterwards, "Klose played a bit deeper than Toni, they weren't on top of each other. Miro's a very clever player; the goals seem to come of their own accord." The striker himself commented that, "It was important to get an early goal. We moved the ball around well, which gets the other team moving around after it."

Competition looming

Injury prevented both Klose and Toni from making any kind of impact up front for Bayern at the start of the season, but they are clearly flourishing in the team's current 4-4-2 formation. Once Franck Ribery is back from injury and new signing Arjen Robben is fully fit however, and van Gaal presumably returns to his preferred 4-3-3 line-up, the two strikers may well find themselves rivals for a single starting slot.

For cup opponents Frankfurt meanwhile, defeat was a sobering experience. "We were totally outclassed. They took us apart", said chairman Heribert Bruchhagen in summary of the encounter. Summer signing Maik Franz, whose misjudged back-pass paved the way for Bayern's third goal, said that Sunday's home game against Bochum had to be used "to win back lost credit."