Bayer Leverkusen beat Bayern Munich 3-0 to boost the hopes of the Bundesliga leaders.
Xabi Alonso’s team, who have never won the German championship crown, extended their lead at the top of the standings to five points with a well-deserved victory against the Bavarian giants.
Leverkusen are still unbeaten after 21 league games this season and will be looking to this match with immense belief that they can finally win the title and break Bayern’s incredible run of 11 consecutive successes.
After a delay of almost 10 minutes in the start of the match, Leverkusen took the lead after 18 minutes. Florian Wirtz took possession, drove forward and created an attack in which Bayern tried to clear their lines to get a corner.
From this came a cross for Robert Andrich, who crossed the ball in the opposite direction, where Josip Stanišić hit the post from a back position. The full-back didn’t want to celebrate as he is on loan at Leverkusen from the reigning champions.
Leverkusen had two strong chances in the next five minutes as one attempt was blocked, but after the ensuing corner Jonathan Tah forced Manuel Neuer into a save. Fortunately for the hosts, the missed goals did not come back as they made a great start to the second half. Alejandro Grimaldo and Nathan Tella combined brilliantly to see the former hit the post five minutes after the kick-off.
Bayern managed to apply some pressure from then on, with Joshua Kimmich and Thomas Müller coming on on the hour mark, but they were unable to really threaten Leverkusen goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.
Bayern’s humiliation ended just before the end when Jeremie Frimpong broke forward and hit the unguarded net from outside the box to round off an outstanding performance from his team.
The visitors managed only one shot – Noussair Mazraoui’s long-range effort in the 26th minute – and cannot complain about the final result.
THE BIG LOSER:
Harry Kane was understandably labelled as a big threat in the Bayern match, but Harry Kane was silent in the BayArena all game. His only shot from long range in the 78th minute was blocked. He also had 17 touches – fewer than any other player who started the game. Of course, it would be absurd to pin the blame solely on him, but Bayern needed much more from the English star.