Bayer Leverkusen tops the Bundesliga as Bayern suffers defeat

With 41 points on the counter, Thomas Tuchel’s men are seven points behind Bayer Leverkusen (48), before a late match of the 13th day to be played on Wednesday night, still at home, against Union Berlin.

Beaten in mid-August in the German Super Cup by RB Leipzig (3-0), by Saarbrücken (3rd division) in the 16th final of the German Cup (1-0) and in Frankfurt for the 14th day (5-1), Bayern recorded its fourth defeat of the season.

For its part, Bayer Leverkusen is still undefeated in 27 matches, all competitions combined (15 victories and 3 draws in the Bundesliga, 6 successes in the Europa League and 3 in the Cup).

However, Werder Bremen was one of Bayern Munich’s favorite opponents: the Bavarians remained in a series of 28 matches without defeat against Werder. This is the first time that Bremen has won against Munich since September 2008.

Wednesday’s match against Union Berlin (15th in the Bundesliga with 14 points, but two matches late), promises to be essential not to let Bayer Leverkusen escape at the top of the Bundesliga, after the mid-season.

The goal of the match came at the hour of play, by Mitchell Weiser with a beautiful shot under Manuel Neuer’s helm. The Werder midfielder had the task facilitated by a clearly late marking of Bayern’s left-back, Canadian Alphonso Davies.

Uninspired, Bayern had difficulty creating opportunities in front of Michael Zetterer’s goal, after the opening of the score, at most a Harry Kane head that did not go to the frame, on a handover by Leon Goretzka (72nd).

The people of Munich woke up too late, at the end of the meeting. On a center of Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting in the last five minutes, Mathys Tel’s head blow was pushed back to the post by Zetterer (87th minute).

The young French international hopeful was clearly the most dangerous player on Bayern’s side: a few seconds after his head on the post, he narrowly missed the frame on a rolled-up shot at the entrance to the penalty area. And in the last moments, he again crossed his strike a little too much, the last opportunity for the people of Munich to snatch a point.

“We would have deserved to score a goal in the last quarter of an hour but in the 90 minutes, we did not deserve the victory. It’s a slap that we received in the face. There was no life in our match,” Müller summarized after the meeting at the microphone of the DAZN broadcaster.

The changes made by Thomas Tuchel (exits of Davies, Joshua Kimmich and Raphaël Guerreiro and entries by Thomas Müller, Tel and Goretzka) have barely brought a little more offensive animation.

In the first period, Manuel Neuer’s teammates had created rare goal opportunities, but it was mainly the Munich defense that was often used on quick counters of the Bremen attack.

On a first very big opportunity for Mitchell Weiser, Manuel Neuer once again showed that he had returned to his best level (24th). Four minutes later, he could not do anything against Justin Njinmah, whose goal was refused for a foul on Jamal Musiala at the start of the action, whistled after video assistance.