Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen defeated champions Bayern Munich 3-0 on Saturday, moving them five points ahead at the top of the league and comfortably in control of the championship battle.
Goals from Josip Stanisic, Alejandro Grimaldo, and Jeremie Frimpong secured the three points for Leverkusen, who have never won a Bundesliga crown and have now gone 31 games undefeated in all competitions this season.
Bayern, pursuing a 12th consecutive league title, were nowhere to be found, with just one attempt on target in the 90 minutes.
Xabi Alonso’s club, who also twice struck the woodwork, currently has 55 points, with Bayern in second position with 50.
“Today it was a very disciplined performance from my team,” Alonso stated in a statement. “It wasn’t easy, but we waited for our opportunity. Maybe we didn’t have much ball today, but we wanted to remain dominating even without it.”
“It was a very important win but it is just three points,” he told reporters. “We need to keep going. It’s only February, and we need to be calm.”
The game was delayed by eight minutes when supporters threw sweets onto the field before kickoff to protest the league’s decision to allow a financial investor to purchase a share in the Bundesliga media rights firm.
Once play began, the hosts were more proactive than Bayern, who controlled possession but lacked offensive ideas. The Bavarians were also fragile in defence, having to deal with Leverkusen’s rising pressure.
They were caught off guard when Robert Andrich, after a short throw-in, blasted a cutback into the box, leaving Stanisic, on loan from Bayern, entirely unmarked at the far post.
Five minutes after the restart, Spain international Grimaldo extended the advantage with his eighth league goal of the season, before hitting the crossbar with a viciously curled corner kick.
The hosts eventually eased off, but Frimpong’s low shot went wide in the 73rd.
The Bavarians had no way back into the game, and even the league’s leading scorer, Harry Kane, struggled to make an effect.
“We started well, but then errors started creeping in,” said Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel, whose club will play Lazio in the Champions League round of 16 next week.
“We were unable to create any opportunities, even late in the game when we had five or six attacking players. I don’t know why we didn’t get Harry more engaged in the game.
Frimpong struck the post in the 88th minute, but the Dutch international ultimately scored after Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer inexplicably walked into the opponents’ area in stoppage time for a corner.
He failed to return to his own box, and Frimpong sprinted free before floating a shot from 25 meters into an empty goal to top off an unforgettable evening.
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Leverkusen crushes Bayern to move 5 points ahead in the Bundesliga.
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