Pep Guardiola has admitted that his Bayern Munich side "lost control" before eventually beating FC Koln 4-1 at the Allianz Arena on Friday night.
Goals from Bastian Schweinsteiger and Franck Ribery in the opening 10 minutes put the hosts in a commanding position, but Anthony Ujah responded for Koln and only some impressive goalkeeping from Manuel Neuer prevented the away side from finding an equaliser.
Guardiola was left in no doubt that Neuer's contribution was key as Bayern moved 11 points clear of Wolfsburg at the top of the Bundesliga.
"I'm happy," the Spaniard told reporters. "We've beaten the second best away team in the league and scored four goals, which is very, very difficult against these opponents.
"We started well, but we lost control after a while. Once Arjen had made it 3-1 it was a completely different game again. We recovered our dominance.
"But we won today because Manuel Neuer made two outstanding saves."
Bayern have scored 18 goals in their last three league games.
Callum Mulvihill
