Bayern Munich’s unbeaten start to the Bundesliga season came to an end when Borussia Monchengladbach held them to a frustrating 1-1 draw at home.
The champions had previously been on fire in 2022–23, scoring 15 goals over three victories, but on Saturday, Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer put up a strong fight against them.
The first two goals scored by Sadio Mane for Julian Nagelsmann’s team in the first half were ruled out before Marcus Thuram capitalized on Dayot Upamecano’s error to appear to have won the match.
In the second half, Bayern threw everything at Gladbach, with Sommer repelling the majority of it, until a strong Leroy Sane effort snatched a point, the absolute minimum the hosts deserved but sufficient to return them to the top of the table.
Bayern nearly took the lead within a minute, keeping with the theme that would emerge throughout the game, but Sommer made a brilliant save to tip Upamecano’s header wide.
In spite of the hosts’ continued dominance, Mane had two goals disallowed for offside in quick succession, and just before halftime, Nagelsmann’s team was dealt a cruel blow.
Thuram raced onto a long punt forward that Upamecano couldn’t handle, slid the ball past Manuel Neuer, and gave his team the lead against the flow of play.
With just under 30 minutes remaining, Sommer was forced to make a superb double-stop to stop Mane from scoring from close range as Bayern increased the pressure.
The winger finally outwitted the Switzerland international on minute 83, steering into the bottom-left corner despite the international’s best efforts to block Sane in a one-on-one situation.
Bayern pushed hard for the winning goal, but Sommer was in fine form and made a remarkable 19 saves to hold them off.
Why does that matter? Exceptional Bayern only earns a point.
Nagelsmann will be perplexed as to how his team failed to win this game after taking 33 shots, with an amazing 20 of them finding the target.
Bayern had more than enough chances at the other end to win two or three games, but they will undoubtedly regret Upamecano’s error that allowed Thuram to score.
rescuing Sommer
More than 17 saves by a goalkeeper in a game in Europe’s top five leagues had never before been recorded by Opta, but Sommer broke that record in spectacular fashion.
Before Sane’s deft finish finally put Bayern on the board, he appeared impenetrable.
inadequate Muller
Not all of Sommer’s saves were exceptional, and in the second half, he was happy to see Thomas Muller nod directly in his direction.
Even though Muller gave his teammates four chances to score, his performance was below par.
Next, what?
On Wednesday, Bayern travel to Viktoria Koln in the DFB-Pokal first round. The following match for Gladbach will be a league match at home against Mainz.