buoyed by saturday's bundesliga hat-trick, mario gómez says it is time for fc bayern münchen to "build momentum and get our confidence back" when cfr 1907 cluj visit.
fc bayern münchen may have endured a slow start to their bundesliga title defence but, for one player in particular, the light at the end of the tunnel emerged on saturday.
a domestic double and a uefa champions league final set the bar high in louis van gaal's debut season at the fußball arena münchen. bayern may have picked up from where they left off in europe, winning their first two group e fixtures, but have not hit such heights domestically. they sit tenth in the bundesliga having collected 11 points from their opening eight matches.
this weekend, though, might have marked a turning point. a 3-0 victory against hannover 96 was only bayern's third top-flight triumph of the campaign and was all the more impressive considering the raft of injuries which van gaal has had to deal with. miroslav klose and ivica olić were two of the absentees against hannover, meaning a starting berth for mario gómez. a match-winning hat-trick – his first league goals since february – later and the striker is optimistic ahead of the visit of cfr 1907 cluj.
"we had a very positive experience against hannover, which should give us confidence for the game against cluj," said the 25-year-old. "good times have been quite rare in the bundesliga recently, now it is time to build momentum. we scored three times against hannover and did not concede, so our defence was strong too. we want to win games so we can get our coolness and confidence back."
four-time champions of europe's premier club competition, bayern have won their last five home games in the competition and will be widely fancied to make it six out of six against cfr. the romanian titleholders have their own concerns domestically – they are 11th after 11 games – but opened their group e campaign with a 2-1 triumph over fc basel 1893 before succumbing 2-1 at roma on matchday 2.
"we are performing much better in the champions league than in the bundesliga," said gómez. "[but] so are cluj. their performances in the romanian league have not been as good as in the champions league, even though they lost to roma. they could have won that game, we know they are a strong team with quality.
"one thing is for sure: we want to win this game. the last few days have been much more enjoyable than the weeks before. now i must continue scoring. unfortunately i won't be able to get three in every game."
1. fc bayern münchen...3...3...0...0...7...3...4...9 2. fc basel 1893...3...1...0...2...5...5...0...3 3. cfr 1907 cluj...3...1...0...2...5...6...-1...3 4. as roma...3...1...0...2...3...6...-3...3
cfr took the lead in germany but two own goals proved their undoing as bayern moved six points clear in group e.
fc bayern münchen were helped by two own goals from cfr 1907 cluj as they defeated the romanian champions 3-2 to maintain their perfect record in group e.
bayern's run of five successive home wins in the competition looked in jeopardy when cadú put the visitors ahead on 28 minutes. however, the cfr captain and team-mate cristian panin both put through their own net in quick succession to hand bayern the initiative.
mario gómez's 77th-minute strike gave the hosts sufficient breathing space to render juan culio's late strike merely a consolation and leave last season's runners-up needing a win in romania on matchday 4 to guarantee a place in the knockout stages.
cfr owner arpad paszkany owns a house in munich so it was hardly surprising his team initially looked at home. felice piccolo could even have given the visitors an early lead, but after evading bayern attentions at the back post, the defender's lunge to meet roberto de zerbi's cross sent the ball looping over the bar.
it was a warning bayern failed to heed, and they paid the price as cfr went in front with a copycat move. de zerbi's dead-ball delivery swirled invitingly once more to the far post, and cadú surged free to head emphatically beyond jörg butt. no sooner had the captain struck than he found the net again, though this time his decisive touch turned a toni kroos shot beyond eduard stăncioiu in the visitors' goal.
a second own goal followed soon after – holger badstuber's curling corner ricocheting in off the unfortunate panin. lady luck was clearly siding with louis van gaal's side, smiling once more on them when lacina traoré's shot with the final action of the half beat butt only to rebound to safety off the foot of a post.
that miss seemed to suck the self-belief from cfr, who found themselves pinned back after the break. a kroos drive had stăncioiu scrambling to his right before a well-directed badstuber free-kick brought a full-length flying save from the romanian goalkeeper.
it was not all one-way traffic, though, and substitute ioan hora's fizzing shot drew an instinctive save from butt who diverted the ball over. however, gómez's fortuitous third, in which piccolo's attempted clearance rebounded into the net off the bayern forward, meant culio's late effort from a brilliant squared pass across the box from panin was in vain.
yardımcı hakemler: michael mullarkey (eng), peter kirkup (eng)
4. hakem: stuart attwell (eng)
çizgi hakemleri: andre marriner (eng), lee mason (eng)
bayern: jörg butt (gk), hamit altıntop, andreas ottl, philipp lahm (c), danijel pranjić, thomas müller, holger badstuber, bastian schweinsteiger (dk. 80 edson braafheid), mario gómez, toni kroos, anatoliy tymoshchuk
yedekler: thomas kraft (gk), martín demichelis, christoph knasmüllner, nicolas jüllich
teknik direktör: louis van gaal (ned)
cfr cluj: eduard stăncioiu (gk), cristian panin, emil dică, dominique kivuvu, lacina traoré (dk. 76 saša bjelanović), roberto de zerbi, felice piccolo, rafael bastos (dk. 56 ioan hora), juan culio, cadú (c), ionuţ rada
yedekler: nuno claro (gk), tony, tomás costa, hugo alcântara, leo veloso
