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Bayern’s tired legs still without their mojo continue free fall
After last week’s embarrassing bashing in Spain at the hands of Messi and his Barcelona gang, Bayern desperately needed to bounce back and get back to winning ways but that was not to be as both their shyness in front of goal and sloppy defending continued. For the second straight Bundesliga game (and the third straight game in two different competitions), Bayern failed to find the back of the net and were condemned to their second straight league defeat by the visiting Augsburg team.
Guardiola made four changes to the starting XI that lost at Barcelona on Wednesday by bringing in Pepe Reina, Dante, Mitchell Weiser and Mario Gotze in place of Neuer, Mehdi Benatia, Rafinha and Xavi Alonso but things went from bad to worse as Pepe Reina was given his marching orders in the 13th minute following his rash bundling of Bobadilla in the penalty box forcing a change in game plan as Neuer was soon called up from the bench to replace Philipp Lahm. Although Paul Verhaegh could not convert the resulting penalty for the visitors, Augsburg’s spirited display was to yield result in the 71st minute when Raul Bobadilla easily tapped in a fine pass from the substitute Pierre-Emile to lift the 109-years old team to fifth on the league table with 46 points and greatly boost their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Europa league.
In the end, the single goal by the visitors was enough to extend Bayern’s misery to fourth straight defeat in all competitions. This recent loss can only compound the pressure on coach Pep Guardiola who seems to be running out of time at Bayern Munich with almighty Barcelona set to visit next Tuesday for the second leg of the UCL’s semi-final and amidst rumours that he is seeking a fresh start elsewhere and has already agreed a deal to take over the reins at Manchester City in the summer.
Dortmund’s find their rhyme again
Elsewhere at the Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund’s revival continued as they recorded their fourth victory in fifth straight matches with a 2-0 win over Hertha-Berlin to move seventh with 43 points. This is in contrast to their terrible early season form that once saw them languish at the bottom of league table. Outgoing Dortmund coach, Klopp Jurgen could not help but be delighted with his team’s resurgence and even joked after the match that considering this team’s new found momentum, he wished he had announced his departure from the former German champions earlier than he did.
Moenchengladbach gunning to make history, set qualify for UCL
With two matches to go, Borrusia Moenchengladbach took a great leap and put themselves in good stead to qualify for their first ever qualification for next season’s UCL group stage with a 3-0 home victory over Bayern Leverkusen which saw them move up to third place with 63 points while Leverkusen drop down the ladder to fourth position with 58 points. Wolfsburg reclaimed second place with 65 points following a 1-3 win away at Paderborn; Wolfsburg have thus, secured for themselves a UCL spot next season.
Bottom teams scrap to avoid relegation
Bottom team, VfB Stuggart secured a precious 2-0 victory over FSV Mainz to move within one point of safety with two matches to go. As it is stands, none of the bottom five teams (Berlin, 32 points; Hamburg, 32 points; Freiburg, 32 points; Hannover, 31 points; Paderborn, 31 points; and Stuggart, 30 points) is yet safe from relegation; the 2014/2015 German Bundesliga will therefore go to the wire until the last kick of the season… For the love of football.
by Idowu Olagoke KUNLERE
Sportlineng German football expert
