Bayern produce near-perfect performance, but Pep wants more

Roma's coaching staff, substitutes and supporters looked on in stunned amazement as Bayern ripped through their shell-shocked defence, scoring four goals between the 23rd and 35th minutes on their way to their record 7-1 away win.

With their 38-year-old talismanic forward Francesco Totti performing a disappearing act, the hosts had no answer to Bayern's relentless pressing and struggled to get the ball out of their own half, with every mistake starting off another surgical Bayern attack.

Arjen Robben scored twice, while Mario Goetze, Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller, from a penalty, also chipped in before halftime and substitutes Franck Ribery and Xherdan Shaqiri completed the rout after the break.

Gervinho provided Roma's consolation and prevented Bayern keeping a clean sheet for the ninth match in a row in all competitions.

Roma, who had never conceded more than three goals in a home European game before, equalled their heaviest-ever European defeat, a 7-1 loss to Manchester United.

"We have a few things to improve and one of them is that we gave Roma too many chances at the start of the second half.

"This game is an exception, an incident. It's not the difference between the two teams, we will see that in two weeks.

"We got a quick goal and that relaxed us, then we got another. Rome are a team who always play well, but we were very aggressive, made the right decisions and found space."

"It was a technical collapse, not a mental one. The first person to make a mistake was myself. I got the strategy wrong. In the second half, we showed some pride and would have scored more goals if it hadn't been for their goalkeeper.

"Bayern have showed that they are stronger than us. We were spectators at the match, we should have been more aggressive and compact."

Results such as this are viewed as a one-off. An anomaly, if you will. But it can't be a coincidence that it always seems to be Bayern at the heart of these results, and Pep Guardiola at the heart of these performances.

The solitary goal that Roma offered up was the first Bayern have conceded since August - a run that spanned 813 minutes of football.

It was as close to a perfect performance you'll see this season and one that was filled with as much tenacity and ferociousness as it was grace and poise. It was simply a delight to watch - something that has been said of Guardiola's teams on numerous occasions in the past.

The Bavarian outfit are strolling their way to another Bundesliga title this season, and after witnessing Bayern's dismantling of Roma, nobody would be surprised to see them crowned European champions once again come the end of the year.

James Horncastle (ESPN): Bayern Munich were playing in Italy on Tuesday night, but it sure felt as though they were out of this world. Five-nil up after only 36 minutes, a scoreline without precedent for an away team in the Champions League, this was precisely the kind of "another level" performance Pep Guardiola was appointed to deliver. That it came only in a group stage game doesn't alter its impact. This had echoes of the Mineirazo at the World Cup, except remember that Germany were even more precocious, ruthlessly plunging five past Brazil inside 29 minutes of the two countries' semi-final. A similar sequence of events happened in Rome: an early goal, a doubling of the lead and no let up, no time for their opponent to get a grip. Instead it's precisely in that moment of vulnerability Bayern went for the kill, ratcheting up the pressure to provoke a collapse.