Football
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Arjen Robben bemoans goal conceded in Bayern's 5-1 friendly win

Arjen Robben celebrated his 31st birthday with two goals as Bayern Munich beat Bochum 5-1 in a friendly on Friday evening, and the Dutchman said how good it felt to be playing football again.

After one week off followed by five weeks of training, the Bundesliga recommences next weekend when Bayern travel to second-placed Wolfsburg, and Robben cannot wait for the real action to begin again.

"It was an important game today,'' said the Dutchman to sport1.de. "You can train all you want, but you need games to get into your rhythm so I think we can be happy.''

At the same time, Robben bemoaned the fact that Bayern actually conceded a goal to the 2. Bundesliga outfit.

"That kind of thing cannot be allowed to happen to us in the Champions League,'' Robben said, referring to Danny Latza's volley which put the hosts in front. "I hope we're ready now, not just for Wolfsburg but for the rest of the season. We've got high expectations.''

Wolfsburg will go into Friday night's clash at the VW-Arena also with high expectations after they beat Karlsruher 2-1 on Friday, although their aim for the season is to secure a return to the Champions League with anything else unrealistic.

"At the moment, you can't realistically seriously endanger this Bayern side,'' said Wolfsburg's director of sport Klaus Allofs.

"But let's just see if my side can surprise me. I'm not ruling the title out, all I am saying is that I believe many things would have to come together for it to happen.''

The Wolves trail Bayern by 11 points at the top of the table while they have a six-point cushion over third-placed Bayer Leverkusen with Borussia Monchengladbach, Schalke and Augsburg just a point further behind.

"We know we've got some predators breathing down our necks and we would like to maintain this cushion we've established in order to qualify for the Champions League come the end of the season,'' said coach Dieter Hecking.

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