Werder Bremen loss sees Bayern slip off the pace in title race
MUNICH — Bayern Munich coach Thomas Tuchel was left questioning his team’s attitude after a 1-0 loss at home to Werder Bremen on Sunday dented its chances of catching Bundesliga leader Bayer Leverkusen.
Former Bayern player Mitchell Weiser scored the only goal as Bremen earned its first win over Bayern since 2008 to leave the defending champion seven points off Leverkusen.
Speaking to broadcaster DAZN, Tuchel accused his team of playing for most of the game “as if we had a 10-point lead and a Champions League game coming up on Tuesday”. It was pointed criticism of a team that has won the German league 11 years running.
Reeling off a list of problems with Bayern’s game, Tuchel blamed a lack of movement, to allowing a “crazy” number of counterattacks, and suggested his team had only realized the seriousness of the situation in the last 20 minutes.
“It’s a deserved loss, because 20 minutes just aren’t enough,” he said.
Bremen repeatedly tested Bayern on the counter in the first half — and had a goal for Justin Njinmah ruled out for an earlier foul — while Bayern made little progress getting through the compact Bremen defense.
Weiser — who previously played for both Leverkusen and Bayern — gave Bremen the lead in the 59th minute with a moment of individual skill, as he beat left back Alphonso Davies out wide, cut inside and blasted a shot past Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal.
Bayern had the Bremen goal under siege after that and came close to scoring with Mathys Tel’s header bouncing off goalkeeper Michael Zetterer, against the post, back onto Zetterer and into the post again before Bremen could clear.
Tel dragged another shot just wide of the far post in the final seconds of stoppage time.
While Bayern trails Leverkusen, which beat Leipzig 3-2 on Saturday, it has one extra game to play against struggling Union Berlin on Wednesday. That was rescheduled from last month because of snow. Bremen ended the day 13th in the 18-team league.
It was Bayern’s first loss since a shock 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Dec 9, and Bremen’s first win since beating Augsburg the same day.
Bayern was playing for the first time in nine days, a spell of rest Tuchel’s team had used for a midseason training camp in Portugal, before attending Friday’s memorial service for Franz Beckenbauer.
Harry Kane failed to add to his 22 goals in the Bundesliga so far this season. It was only his fourth league game of the season without a goal since joining Bayern.
Also Sunday, Augsburg recovered from a goal down to beat Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1. American forward Jordan Pefok gave Gladbach the lead before two goals in the space of four minutes from Phillip Tietz and Arne Engels snatched the win for Augsburg, which moves up to 10th. Gladbach is 12th.
The game was delayed nearly 10 minutes in the first half as Gladbach fans threw objects onto the field in the latest of a series of protests in Germany against the league’s plans to involve an outside investor.
Austrian defender Stefan Lainer came off the Gladbach bench to a standing ovation in his first game since he was diagnosed with lymph node cancer in July.