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| Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Muenchen, Florian Neuhaus of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Stefan Lainer of Borussia Moenchengladbach battle for the ball during the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern München and Borussia Mönchengladbach at Allianz Arena on January 7, 2022 in Munich, Germany. |
Borussia Moenchengladbach came from behind to beat a severely weakened Bayern Munich 2-1 as the Bundesliga returned from the winter break amid a wave of coronavirus infections
Bayern were missing nine players on Friday, including goalkeeper captain Manuel Neuer, to positive tests and a handful of others were unavailable due to injuries and international duty.
Nonetheless Robert Lewandowski's 20th of the season to open the scoring suggested normal service would continue from the league leaders before Gladbach produced a brilliant comeback.
Florian Neuhaus swept in an equaliser and Stefan Lainer headed the winner from a corner before half-time as Gladbach ended a run of five games without victory.
Gladbach, who humiliated Bayern 5-0 in the German Cup second round before suffering a collapse in form, move up to 11th.
Bayern still top the table by nine points but second-placed Borussia Dortmund could cut the gap away to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
"We have implemented our match plan very, very well," Neuhaus told broadcaster Sat1. "Bayern had a lot of absences but we did not want to let that influence us."
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| Matthias Ginter of Borussia Moenchengladbach and Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Muenchen battle for the ball during the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern München and Borussia Mönchengladbach at Allianz Arena on January 7, 2022 in Munich, Germany. |
Bayern had asked for the game to be postponed, such was their situation, but could still name a relatively strong 11 even with youngster Malik Tillman making his starting debut.
The bench consisted of youth players with Paul Wanner - now Bayern's youngest ever Bundesliga player at 16 years 15 days - and 17-year-old Lucas Copado bound to remember their late debuts even in a losing cause.
"We had a situation, that is known," Bayern's Thomas Mueller told DAZN. "But we have still had a lot of quality on the park.
"It can't happen to us that we lose the ball so often at the final third. We made a lot of chances anyway."
Bayern, despite their problems, could still have won the game with Lewandowski hitting the post and bar as they searched for an equaliser and Mueller having a shot cleared off the line from the rebound of the former.
Gladbach keeper Yann Sommer also made a string of saves from Lewandowski, Jamal Musiala and Mueller to clinch the win.
