Sadio Mane joined in the celebrations with Bayern Munich fans as he netted on his Bundesliga debut as his new side thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 6-1 on the opening night.
Mane joined Bayern Munich in a £35.1million agreement from Liverpool this summer and he had already netted on his Bayern debut last weekend in the German Super Cup victory over RB Leipzig, and has now taken that form into the Bundesliga.
The Senegalese star scored his first Bundesliga goal and Bayern’s third of the game after Serge Gnabry was played in down the left wing with the former Liverpool man up alongside him in the middle, with Gnabry deftly lobbing a ball into the box for Mane to head home.
By that stage, the game was almost as good as done as Bayern blew away the Europa League winners thanks to two goals in the opening 11 minutes from Joshua Kimmich and Benjamin Pavard as they put down an early marker of their season intentions.
In what was theoretically one of the tougher assignments in the German top-flight, Bayern’s goals did not stop coming after Mane got in on the act as Jamal Musiala and Gnabry both found the net – with Thomas Muller grabbing both assists – to make it a five-goal difference by half-time.
Substitute Randal Kolo Muani pulled a goal back for Frankfurt after the break but former Chelsea youth star Musiala grabbed his second and Bayern’s sixth late on. It put the shine on the side’s first league match without Robert Lewandowski and illustrated their deadly attacking combinations without the Poland international.
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Ahead of the encounter, Frankfurt president Peter Fischer had joked about the arrival of Mane at Bayern as he said in an interview with broadcasters RTL and n-tv: “Who the f*** is Mane?” Yet that ironic joke somewhat backfired as his side were unable to stop the former Reds star and his teammate.
Mane could not hide his delight with how his Bundesliga debut had panned out, putting in his trademark goal celebration of kissing the pitch before raising his fingers to the sky and then, showing his jubilant mood, even went up to join the Bayern supporters in the stand and grab a microphone.
Frankfurt won last season's Europa League and face Champions League winners Real Madrid for the Uefa Super Cup next Wednesday, but will need to sharply improve on this showing if they are to prove to be a match for the European champions.