Paris (AFP)
Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich narrowly won against the red Paderborn lantern on Friday (3-2), but was not completely reassured four days before traveling to Chelsea for the round of 16 first leg of Champions League.
It was hard for Bayern Munich: facing the red lantern of the Paderborn championship, the Bavarians had to wait until the last minutes to overcome their opponents, and will move full of doubts to Chelsea on Tuesday.
From the start of the match, we felt the "Rekordmeisters" less imperial than against Cologne (4-1) last week.
Where it had taken Bayern just 12 minutes to lead 3-0, it took the Bavarians 26 minutes against Paderborn to trigger the goal counter on a very skillful dribble by German international Serge Gnabry.
Then, like their commitment throughout the first half, the players of Paderborn found the fault before half-time: forward Dennis Srbeny took advantage of a big ball from the Bavarian goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, out of his penalty area, to find himself alone facing the nets and leveling (44th, 1-1).
Manhandled by a team that had 30 points less than them in the standings, the Bavarians thought they were delivered by Robert Lewandowski in the 70th minute (2-1). It was without counting on the reaction of the players of Steffen Baugmart who, 5 minutes later, equalized again thanks to Sven Michel (2-2, 75th).
Finally, the top scorer in the championship offered a double and the victory at Bayern at the very end of the match (88th, 3-2), signing his 25th goal this season.
With this victory, Bayern made sure to finish the 23rd day of the Bundesliga in the lead (49 points). His two title pursuers, Leipzig (45 pts) and Dortmund (42 pts), both inflated to their block by their C1 victories this week, (respectively 1-0 at Tottenham and 2-1 against PSG), move Saturday in Schalke and Bremen.
© 2020 AFP