FRANKFURT: Eintracht Frankfurt pulverised Bayern Munich 5-1 with a three-goal first-half performance on Saturday to snap the champions’ unbeaten run in the Bundesliga this season.
In an explosive first half, Eintracht overran Bayern and exposed their error-prone backline, scoring three times in 24 minutes.
The Bavarians, who did not play last week after their league match against Union Berlin was postponed due to snow, looked far from fresh and were in disarray, with coach Thomas Tuchel unusually substituting both his fullbacks at halftime.
“We are frustrated and disappointed with our first defeat. We underestimated a lot of those half chances,” Tuchel told a press conference. “Those half chances led to a lot of goals today. We did not do anything we had set out to do.
“I have no real explanation for those individual mistakes. We cannot keep playing at this level because we just allow too many chances.”
Omar Marmoush opened the hosts’ account in the 12th minute, drilling in on the rebound after Fares Chaibi had hit the crossbar following a miskick from Bayern’s Noussair Mazraoui.
After yet more slapdash defending from Bayern, Eric Dina Ebimbe doubled their lead in the 31st and Hugo Larsson made it 3-0 five minutes later, benefiting from a Joshua Kimmich error.
Kimmich made amends just before the break with a powerful shot from 20 metres out to cut the deficit but it did not stop the home side.
Eintracht put the ball in the net again, five minutes after the restart, to make it 4-1, outplaying Bayern with another textbook quick break and with Ebimbe beating keeper Manuel Neuer for his second goal of the afternoon.
Ansgar Knauff slotted in to make it 5-1 on the hour as Frankfurt became the first team in 48 years to score five goals in one hour against Bayern in the Bundesliga, since their own 6-0 win in 1975.
Bayern, with a game in hand, remain in second place on 32 points, with leaders Bayer Leverkusen, on 35. VfB Stuttgart are third with 30 points.
Meanwhile, in a game contested between two sides in the chasing pack, RB Leipzig beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in an absorbing contest at Signal Iduna Park.
Dortmund were dealt an early blow with Mats Hummels’ red card, which denied the visitors a penalty but they went on to take the lead in the 32nd minute through a Ramy Bensebaini own goal.
Ten-man Dortmund clawed their way back into the contest through Niklas Suele’s close-range finish on the stroke of half-time — but Leipzig’s Austrian forward Christoph Baumgartner tapped in to put Leipzig back in front early in the second half.
Yussuf Poulsen struck as the clock ticked into injury time to make it three goals and three points, keeping Leipzig fourth and opening a gap of four points to fifth-placed Dortmund, despite Niclas Fuellkrug’s late header briefly giving Dortmund hope.
Union Berlin won their first game since August 26 with a 3-1 victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach ensuring a winning start in the Bundesliga under new coach Nenad Bjelica.
The Croatian boss ran down the touchline to join the celebrations with his players as the team climbed to 15th.
Elsewhere, Werder Bremen arrested a four-game winless slump with a 2-0 win over Augsburg while Heidenheim edged out Darmstadt with a 3-2 win in a meeting of two of the newly-promoted strugglers.
Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023