Bayern´s birthday-boy Muller helps down Haifa

German giants Bayern Munich got off to an ideal start in their opening Group A Champions League clash on Tuesday as birthday boy Thomas Muller scored twice to seal a 3-0 win over Maccabi Haifa.

Muller, who only celebrated his 20th birthday on Sunday with two goals against Dortmund in Saturday’s 5-1 win over Dortmund in the Bundesliga, netted twice in the last few minutes here at Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan Stadium.

After Belgium defender Daniel Van Buyten had got the guests’ first goal on 64 minutes with a well-taken strike, Muller added further goals in the 85th and 88th minutes to give the Germans three points in their group.

It was the winning start Dutch coach Louis van Gaal had demanded of Bayern, but Muller is starting to make a name for himself at a club which is no stranger to European success.

Van Buyten took advantage of a slip in the home side’s defence when the ball bobbled away from Bayern’s substitute Mario Gomez and the Belgian defender rifled his shot past Haifa’s goalkeeper Nir Davidovitch.

With time running out, Muller showed finishing way beyond his tender years when he was first set up by substitute defender Christian Ottl in the hosts penalty area and smashed his shot past Davidovitch with five minutes left.

And Gomez played a helping hand again when he was left free on the wing and crossed the ball in for Muller to score from all of three metres out at the near post on 88 minutes.

It was a bad start at home for Elisha Levi’s Haifa side who are seeking to become the first Israeli club to progress from the group stage but provided Bayern with little resistance.

Bayern brought virtually a full strength side here as Germany striker Miroslav Klose was the only key name left behind to work on his fitness after taking longer than expected to get over a leg injury.