A ten-man Bayern Munich acquired away with a shock 3-2 house defeat to Bochum on Saturday after title chasers Bayer Leverkusen have been crushed 2-0 by Werder Bremen. Despite the loss, simply Bayern’s second of the season, the Bavarians nonetheless maintain an eight-point lead over defending champions Leverkusen with 9 video games to play. Leverkusen’s woes have been deepened with an harm to star midfielder Florian Wirtz, who limped off after a tough problem having performed simply 14 second-half minutes. With an eye fixed on Tuesday’s return leg within the Champions League final 16 in opposition to Leverkusen, Bayern coach Vincent Kompany named a closely modified XI, together with leaving striker Harry Kane on the bench.
Bayern midfielder Raphael Guerreiro’s 14th minute objective, when the Portuguese hammered a unfastened ball into the web, had Bayern on observe earlier than Serge Gnabry missed a Twenty first-minute penalty.
With Kane, who has transformed his previous 30 penalties in a row, sitting on the bench, Gnabry stepped up however hit the ball in opposition to the submit.
Guerreiro nonetheless scored once more with a uncommon header on the 28-minute mark, simply three minutes earlier than Bochum’s Jakov Medic pulled one again with an unstoppable rocket.
Bochum got hope when Bayern’s Joao Palhinha noticed crimson for sinking his studs into Giorgos Masouras’s ankle simply earlier than half-time.
Ibrahima Sissoko headed Bochum stage six minutes into the second half and Matus Bero put the underdogs in entrance 71 minutes in, going the size of the sector to knock in a Philipp Hofmann cross.
Bochum’s shock victory, their first win in Munich since 1991, took them three factors away from the automated relegation placings.
“There aren’t any excuses — we misplaced,” Bayern coach Vincent Kompany mentioned, including “even with 10 males, we should always at the least have the expectation of avoiding defeat.”
Leverkusen have been down after simply seven minutes when Romano Schmid tapped in from shut vary.
With Leverkusen failing to click on, coach Xabi Alonso introduced Wirtz from the bench at halftime, however the Germany midfielder was brutally fouled eight minutes afterwards and limped from the sector and left the sector on crutches.
Any harm to Wirtz, the membership’s talisman and greatest participant this season, could be a critical blow to Alonso’s facet, significantly forward of Tuesday’s Champions League match in opposition to Bayern, who maintain a 3-0 lead from the primary leg.
“We’ll have to attend and see,” Alonso mentioned after the match, including “we haven’t any outcomes but.”
Bremen’s Mitchell Weiser, who fouled the Germany midfielder, apologised after the match, saying “I hope it isn’t that dangerous — I’m fortunate it wasn’t a crimson card.”
Borussia Dortmund’s slim possibilities of reaching the highest 4 took a success with a 1-0 house loss to Augsburg, with Jeffrey Gouweleeuw’s first half header the one objective within the recreation.
Dortmund have been toothless in assault and supplied little in opposition to an in-form Augsburg, who’ve conceded simply three targets within the league in 2025 — the most effective mark in Europe.
Dortmund, final season’s Champions League finalists, sit tenth within the league, seven factors off the highest 4.
Elsewhere, St Pauli scored their first objective in 5 matches in a 1-1 draw at Wolfsburg, going two factors away from the relegation playoff spot.
Fellow promoted facet Holstein Kiel additionally picked up a degree with a hard-fought 2-2 house win over Stuttgart.
Later on Saturday, Freiburg host RB Leipzig.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
