Sané answers critics as Bayern routs Hoffenheim to preserve 4-point Bundesliga lead

Leroy Sané answered critics by scoring two goals as Bayern Munich routed Hoffenheim 5-0 to restore its four-point lead in the Bundesliga on Wednesday.

Sané is subject to increased attention with his contract due to expire at the end of the season. Pundits including former Bayern great Lothar Matthaeus say he hasn’t lived up to expectations since joining from Manchester City in 2020, making a contract extension unlikely. Matthaeus was speaking to broadcaster Sky before kickoff.

Sané wasted little time in responding with the opener in the seventh minute when he fired a fierce shot inside the far post after Thomas Müller laid the ball off. Sané’s celebrations showed the criticism had perhaps taken its toll.

“You always want to shake him, that he just does something and doesn’t think too much. And today he did a lot and didn't think too much and he looked good,” Müller said.

Raphaël Guerreiro was celebrating five minutes later as a long evening beckoned for Hoffenheim. Guerreiro played a one-two with Harry Kane before scoring his first Bundesliga goal of the season.

Kane made it 3-0 with a penalty in the 26th. It was his 16th goal of the season.

Sané got his second after the break, set up by Mathys Tel, and substitute Serge Gnabry scored minutes after going on for Kane.

Sané went off to applause from the Bayern fans after Gnabry's goal.

“In the end, you get praised if you give a good performance and you might get a bit of flack if things don’t go so well," Sané said. "I always try to help the team, to give a good performance. And I’m the first one who's unhappy when I don’t give a good performance and can’t help the team.”

Fourth-place Leipzig finished with nine players after squandering a lead to lose 2-1 at Stuttgart, which moved a point behind the visitors.

Benjamin Šeško gave Leipzig an early lead, but the home team was irate that play had continued after an apparent foul by Ridle Baku on Deniz Undav in the buildup. Referee Sascha Stegemann booked Stuttgart assistant coach David Krecidlo for complaining.

Undav set up winter signing Jacob Bruun Larsen to equalize in the 50th and Nick Woltemade completed the comeback 10 minutes later when he poked home the rebound from an Undav effort.

Šeško and Loïs Openda were sent off late as Leipzig slumped to its fifth defeat of the season. Both will miss the next match at Bochum on Saturday.

Bochum defeated St. Pauli 1-0 in the early game thanks to an acrobatic second-half strike from Philipp Hofmann. It’s Bochum’s second win of the season, though it remains bottom.

Bochum is still awaiting the result of Union Berlin’s appeal against the German soccer federation’s decision to award Bochum a win from their game after the Bochum goalkeeper was struck by a lighter.

Also Wednesday, Union slumped to its second straight defeat under new coach Steffen Baumgart with dismal defending to blame for a 2-0 loss at home to Augsburg.

Leonardo Scienza scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time for Heidenheim's third equalizer in a 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Heidenheim's Jan Schöppner, right, celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between SV Werder Bremen and 1. FC Heidenheim in Bremen, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Carmen Jaspersen/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart's Jacob Bruun Larsen, left, and Leipzig's Willi Orban, right, challenge for the ball during a German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig in Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Bernd Weissbrod/dpa via AP)

Berlin's head coach Steffen Baumgart applauds during a German Bundesliga soccer match between 1. FC Union Berlin and FC Augsburg in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Munich's Harry Kane in action with a bicycle kick during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.(Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

Stuttgart's Jacob Bruun Larsen, second right, and his teammate Atakan Karazor, right, celebrate their side's second goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig in Stuttgart, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Bernd Weissbrod/dpa via AP)

Berlin's Benedict Hollerbach, right, and Augsburg's Samuel Essende, left, challenge for the ball during a German Bundesliga soccer match between 1. FC Union Berlin and FC Augsburg in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Andreas Gora/dpa via AP)

Munich's Leroy Sane, left, scores his side's fourth goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.(Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

Munich's Leroy Sane, right, celebrates after scoring his side's fourth goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

Munich's Leroy Sane, second left, scores the opening goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.(Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

Munich's Leroy Sane, left, celebrates after scoring the opening goal during a German Bundesliga soccer match between FC Bayern Munich and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in Munich, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025.(Tom Weller/dpa via AP)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)