Niko Kovac Thrilled With Second Half Performance as Bayern Earn 'Deserved' Win Over Stuttgart

Bayern Munich manager Niko Kovac felt his side merited all three points after a stunning second half display earned Die Roten a 4-1 win over struggling Stuttgart on Sunday.

After seeing Thiago Alcantara's opener ruled out by Anastasios Donis, substitute Serge Gnabry restored the hosts lead, before Leon Goretzka and Robert Lewandowski sealed the win late on.

The victory was the Bavarians seventh consecutive success in the Bundesliga and maintained the six-point gap to top of the table Borussia Dortmund, who had thrashed Hannover 24 hours earlier. 

Bayern were lacklustre in the first half, but much improved after the break - with Kovac pleased with the amount of chances his side ended up creating.

"It was much better in the second half, we were quicker and played more vertically and were able to bring our individual quality into play," Kovac said, as quoted by Bayern'sofficial website.

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"We got in behind our opponents' defence, and it was a deserved victory because of the wealth of chances we had. Now we must put it behind us: we won the match and kept up, now we move on."

After claiming a sixth straight Bundesliga title last year, Kovac's outfit have largely struggled for consistency compared to previous seasons - conceding more goals at this stage than the entirety of last term.

And Kovac was mindful that his team had again failed to start in the fashion he would have wanted, conceding that his team lacked impetus from kick-off.

"We got off to a good start and scored the opener. Then we went missing for 35 minutes. We were too slow, too many of our players were behind the ball, and we failed to unpick Stuttgart's packed defence."

The Bavarians will look to keep up their momentum with victory over Bayer Leverkusen, who they host next weekend at the Allianz Arena.