With half an eye on their upcoming Champions League campaign, Vincent Kompany left some of his bigger hitters on the bench for this Bundesliga clash, but Bayern showed no signs of struggling in the early stages.
The opening 10 minutes so nearly yielded an opening goal when Alphonso Davies' cross-cum-shot drifted agonisingly wide of the post, and Nathaniel Brown was denied by a fine one-handed save by Loris Karius just minutes later, after being teed up by Aleksandar Pavlovic.
Schalke were largely dogged in defence after a couple of early stumbles, and were left feeling hard done by after having two penalty claims waved away by referee Robert Schroder.
The game became much more even as the first half went on, with both sides trading blows – Bayern came close first when Ismael Saibari bent over an effort from the angle of the area, before Adil Aouchiche then went close for Schalke, when his free-kick from the edge of the area got up and over the wall before being repelled by Manuel Neuer.
Kompany had seen enough by half-time and turned to his bench to introduce Harry Kane, but it was one of his mainstays who ought to have fired Bayern ahead on 54 minutes when Luis Diaz raced in behind the Schalke defence and dinked over the on-rushing Karius only to see Hasan Kurucay heroically clear off the line.
Michael Olise was thrown on soon after, and he came closer to making an immediate impact when he burst down the right and fired straight at the legs of Karius.
An even better chance fell to Konrad Laimer moments after, as he ghosted in behind and was left unmarked in the area but could only hammer into the side netting.
Ultimately, thanks much to a world-class save from Karius in the dying moments to deny Kane, it would end 0-0, and though Bayern may have extended their unbeaten Bundesliga away run to 27 matches, tonight's result ensured that their Bundesliga record run of matchdays ended at the top of the table will stop at 67.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonathan Tah (Bayern Munich)
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