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| December 4, 2001 | Tuesday | Ramazan 18, 1422 |
Shock defeat for Bayern Munich
BERLIN, Dec 3: Hertha Berlin stopped Bayern Munich’s title bid in its tracks on Sunday with a surprise 2-1 win over the Bavarians.
Nico Kovac headed the freshly-crowned Intercontinental Cup champions into the lead just moments into the second half but Bayern then relaxed their grip and Andreas Neuendorf levelled matters on 71 minutes.
Pal Dardai then conjured up the winner with six minutes remaining to hand Bayern a second straight away loss and leave them in third place - four points behind Bayer Leverkusen and two behind Borussia Dortmund.
Bayern, not content with their triumph over Boca Juniors in Tokyo last week and their hunt for a second straight Champions League success, are also out for a fourth consecutive Bundesliga win.
But they failed dismally to take advantage of Leverkusen’s first league loss of the campaign Saturday at Werder Bremen, who had beaten Bayern as well last month.
Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld bemoaned missed chances.
“We missed too many chances in the first half and Hertha pinned us back in the second, when we lost our shape and concentration,” Hitzfeld said.
Hertha, meanwhile, jumped into the top six and have managed to put together a run of ten matches without loss thanks to Neuendorf’s first goal of the season and then Dardai completed the job.
Bayern had to rest keeper Oliver Kahn and although his replacement Stefan Wessels played well, making a brilliant first half stop from Brazilian forward Marcelinho, he was powerless to stop either goal.
“Hertha came at us once we scored, we lost our way and they put us under the cosh,” Wessels said.
Dardai was as delighted as Wessels was forlorn.
“We must now get into the top four by Christmas so we can think of having a crack at the Champions League,” the Hungarian midfielder said.
With the half-way mark of the season all but reached Leverkusen have 36 points from their 16 games with Dortund on 34 after their 2-0 win Saturday at struggling Cologne and Bayern are on 32 after this their third league reverse.
In Sunday’s other match Hamburg won a thrilling city derby against tailenders Sankt Pauli 4-3, Bosnian international playmaker Sergei Barbarez hitting what proved to be the winner at the Volkspark Stadion.
Leverkusen, regularly the bridesmaids in Germany as they have never won the league, thus finally had some luck at the end of a dreadfulweek.
They were thrashed 4-0 by Juventus in Thursday’s twice-postponed Champions League encounter and had Jens Nowotny sent off 20 minutes from the end as they crashed in Bremen despite taking the lead through Germany international Bernd Schneider seven minutes before the break.
Bremen hit back seconds later through veteran Marco Bode and Dutchman Frank Verlaat bagged the winner on the hour.
Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmoller said his side were worth a point.
“We played pretty well - but the equaliser came too quickly and that knocked us back. We could have had a draw,” Toppmoller said.—AFP
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