Lewandowski leads Bayern to 2-0 win at Schalke in Bundesliga

Muller could have headed in a second in the final four minutes, before doing so in stoppage time when Lewandowski teed up Kimmich to slot in his first goal for Bayern – a week after he opened his account for Germany.

Dutch forward Klaas-Jan Huntelaar rattled the crossbar for Schalke early in the second half as the hosts frustrated the reigning champions for much of the evening in Gelsenkirchen.

Ribery reportedly fell out with former Bayern boss Pep Guardiola towards the end of the Spaniard’s tenure at the club, and he has set his sights on winning all trophies available to the Bundesliga side, but singled out the Champions League as a priority with Carlo Ancelotti arriving as the club’s new manager.

Lewandowski was not to be denied, however, and got his goal in the 81st minute. “It is never easy to play here and it was an important win”.

Ukraine winger Yevhen Konoplyanka and French midfielder Benjamin Stambouli started for their Schalke debuts, while new signings Nabil Bentaleb and Abdul Rahman Baba also impressed for the home side.

Yet the 19-year-old, who helped Portugal win Euro 2016, struggled in his maiden appearance for Bayern as did his team mates against a packed Schalke midfield.

Schalke’s Leon Goretzka saw a header blocked by David Alaba before he flashed another effort just wide of the far post as the crowd responded to the Royal Blues’ improving form.

Bayern were initially unable to build on that strong display, though, as they were second-best for large parts of the game and Lewandowski missed two big chances to open the scoring when they did prise apart the Schalke defence.

Ancelotti opted to bring on Douglas Costa for Franck Ribery at the hour mark and the Brazilian nearly made an immediate impact, aiming just too high after being set up by Lewandowski. The Poland striker had no time to react to Alaba’s cross and the ball ricocheted over.

Javi Martinez threaded the ball through for Lewandowski and he raced clear of Benedikt Howedes before placing his shot over Ralf Fahrmann and into the roof of the net.

The German champions looked set for a frustrating draw when Lewandowski missed from six yards.