Berlin (AFP)
Reduced to ten early in the game, Bayern Munich suffered Saturday its heaviest defeat in the Bundesliga for 10 years, 5-1 in Frankfurt, allowing Mönchengladbach to consolidate its first place.
Another strong sensation of this 10th day, the box of Leipzig at home: 8-0 against Mainz (5-0 at the break), with a triplet of Timo Werner.
In the standings, Mönchengladbach (2-1 win at Leverkusen) is alone ahead with 22 points, three more than Dortmund, who dominated Wolfsburg 3-0. Leipzig is back in third place (18 pts) and Bayern remain in extremis in the top four qualifier for the Champions League, with also 18 pts and a better goal difference than Freiburg.
For Munich and his coach Niko Kovac, in the hot seat for a few weeks, this humiliation only confirms the bad impression left in recent weeks.
Never since April 2009 and another 5-1 at Wolfsburg Bayern had conceded five goals in the league.
The match fell in the ninth minute, when Jérôme Boateng illegally stopped Paciencia at the edge of the area. After viewing the video, the referee felt that the foul had been committed off the surface, and waived the whistle penalty, but he pulled out the red card.
With Niklas Süle and Lucas Hernandez injured, Bayern loses Boateng the time of his suspension, a third rear central trade. Against Frankfurt, the Bavarians finished with an Alaba-Pavard hinge.
- "A question of state of mind" -
Frankfurt has made the most of its numerical superiority. Filip Kostic (25th) and Djibril Sow (33rd) allowed the locals to take off. The inevitable Robert Lewandowski scored his 14th goal of the season before the break (37th) to delay the deadline. But David Abraham (49th), Martin Hinteregger (61st) and Goncalo Paciencia (85th) chastised the defending champion, again unrecognizable.
Clearly, the calls for revolt, concentration and professionalism launched in October successively by club boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, by Niko Kovac and more recently by Captain Manuel Neuer were not heard.
"It's clearly a question of state of mind," Kovac criticized Tuesday night after the German Cup qualifier (2-1) slumped against 17th-seeded Bochum.
In an attempt to revitalize his group, the Croatian technician - now in a very bad position - made tactical changes and aligned Philippe Coutinho and Thomas Müller, the latter having been one of the only ones to show character against Bochum. At the expense of Kingsley Coman, left on the bench until the hour of play. In vain.
The other matches were also very prolific (27 goals in the first six games of the day). Dortmund, who had been in doubt for some time, again showed that his public at Signal Iduna Park was acting like a magic potion, with a clear 3-0 win against Wolfsburg.
Leipzig, which also had a slump in October, has just scored 14 goals in two games: after its 6-1 win this week in the Wolfsburg lawn, the "Red Bulls" scored 8 this Saturday, their absolute record since joining the first division in 2016.
Werner scored a hat-trick but six players on the team scored!
© 2019 AFP