Serge Gnabry scored a hat-trick and Leroy Sané dazzled on debut in an 8-0 win for the champions on gala night
Friday night. Opening night. Gala night for the champions. Yet if it was so familiar for Bayern Munich, it was alien too. The Rekordmeister has been here so many times that you could forgive it being cruised through on autopilot, as the board did when they and their guests from Gelsenkirchen sat in the directors box without social distancing or masks, earning the club a ticking off from Bavaria’s minister of health, Melanie Huml.
Despite all the regular tells – not least a pair of effervescent wingers wearing the numbers 7 and 10 who tore poor Schalke to bits, more of whom later – there were more unfamiliar, unexpected moments, in line with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge showing contrition to Huml.