Football: Bayern Munich widens the gap with Leipzig

Serious and solid winner of Union Berlin on their lawn on Saturday afternoon (3-0), Bayern Munich reassured themselves before hosting Benfica on Wednesday in the Champions League. On the evening of the 9th day of the German championship, the Munich residents remain at the top of the standings with 23 points, three more than RB Leipzig, beaten in Dortmund (2-1) against Borussia in crisis.

Vincent Kompany's players are still undefeated on the national scene, with points lost only against Bayer Leverkusen (1-1) and Frankfurt (3-3). Before its misstep in Dortmund, Leipzig had also only given up four points in the Bundesliga this season (against Union Berlin and at Sankt Pauli, each time 0-0), before playing in Dortmund.

After the slap received in Barcelona in the Champions League (4-1), the Munich players went on to a third match without conceding a goal (0-5 in Bochum, 0-4 in Mainz, 3-0 against Berlin), Saturday in the cold of the Allianz Arena and its 75,000 spectators. A reassuring defensive stability before hosting Benfica in C1, with the obligation to win because the Munich residents have only 3 points in the premier competition of European Football and remain with two losses on the road, at Aston Villa (1-0 ) and Barcelona.

On Saturday, the Munich players got on the path to victory after a quarter of an hour of play, with a penalty caused by Michael Olise and converted by Harry Kane. The top scorer in the 2023-2024 Bundesliga scored his double in the 51st minute. The captain of the English selection has already scored 11 goals in 9 Bundesliga matches, taking sole lead in the scorers' ranking. Kane has a total of 15 goals in all competitions, if we add the 5 registered in the Champions League (including a quadruple against Zagreb).

Between Kane's two goals, Kingsley Coman doubled the lead for Bayern in the 43rd minute. Announced as leaving for Saudi Arabia last summer by some of the press, Coman decided to stay in Munich and lives again this fall in Bavaria, finding the net for the third consecutive match in the Bundesliga. Against Stuttgart and Bochum, he scored his team's last goal when the fate of the match was already sealed, while on Saturday, he allowed his team to return to the locker room with a two-goal lead.

Decimated by injuries (including that of Gregor Kobel), in crisis and trailing against the run of play, Borussia Dortmund managed to reverse the trend to inflict their first defeat of the season on RB Leipzig (2-1). With this victory at home, Nuri Sahin's men put an end to a series of three defeats, far from their base, in Madrid against Real in the Champions League (5-2 after leading 2-0), Augsburg in the league ( 2-1) and Wolfsburg in the Cup (1-0 after extra time).

Leipzig opened the scoring through Benjamin Cesko in the 27th minute, but Dortmund equalized three minutes later thanks to Maximilian Beier. Peter Gulacsi, Leipzig goalkeeper, repelled Dortmund's attempts for a long time, but had to give in to a header from Serhou Guirassy (65th).

Beaten for the first time this season in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig remains on 20 points and sees Bayern escape alone at the top of the standings with 23 points. BVB moved up to Bayer Leverkusen, the reigning German champion held to a draw by Stuttgart on Friday (0-0), with 16 points and already seven points behind Bayern.

Behind the leading duo, Eintracht Frankfurt crushed bottom-placed Bochum (7-2) at home and took the opportunity to climb onto the Bundesliga podium with 17 points, one more than Leverkusen, which already has seven points from behind Bayern a quarter of the way through the season.

On the other hand, Wolfsburg and Augsburg held their own (1-1) in a mid-table match, in which neither Cédric Zesiger (left on the bench) nor Ruben Vargas (still injured in the ankle) took part. .

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