Kovac under pressure as Bayern crash 3-0 at home
BERLIN: Bayern Munich suffered a second consecutive Bundesliga defeat, crashing 3-0 at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach, to drop to fifth in the table on Saturday while Paco Alcacer scored a hat-trick for league leaders Borussia Dortmund.
Pressure is mounting on Bayern head coach Niko Kovac whose side are four points behind Dortmund.
Bayern are winless in their last four games in all competitions and suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time since May 2015, when they had already won the Bundesliga title.
“We are making too many individual mistakes,” said Kovac. “Everyone is trying, but at the moment we just aren’t bringing it together on the pitch.”
Bayern were 2-0 down after just 16 minutes at the Allianz Arena.
Gladbach striker Alassane Plea beautifully curled a long-range shot around the dive of Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer on 10 minutes.
The second came six minutes later when Bayern midfielder Thiago Alcantara lost possession near his own box.
Jonas Hofmann pounced on the loose ball and squared for club captain Lars Stindl, making his return after long-term injury, to score and stun the Munich crowd.
Bayern left-back David Alaba limped off with injury after the break and although Munich striker Robert Lewandowski had the ball in the Gladbach net on 68 minutes, the effort was offside.
Patrick Hermann added the third goal in the 88th minute when he took advantage of a mistake in the Bayern defence and fired the ball across Neuer.
Gladbach are now second, three points behind leaders Dortmund who needed a 96th-minute freekick from Alcacer to seal a stunning 4-3 win over Augsburg.
Having already scored two late goals off the bench in last Saturday’s 4-2 comeback victory at Bayer Leverkusen, and netted again in the 3-0 Champions League midweek win over Monaco, Alcacer was again deadly off the bench.
With seven goals in just four games since signing on a seasonlong loan from Barcelona, the 25year-old, on loan from Barcelona until June, hopes to stay past the 2018/19 season.
“I feel good here and I can imagine staying at Borussia Dortmund for more than a year,” said Alcacer.
“Goals are important, but more important is the team spirit.”
There was no clue of the drama to come when Dortmund slipped 10 down after Alfred Finnbogason’s first-half goal.
Alcacer equalised on 62 minutes, three minutes after coming on, by converting a cross by winger Jadon Sancho, 18, who had his first call up to the senior England squad on Thursday.
Philipp Max restored Augsburg’s lead only for Alcacer to claim his second equaliser on 80 minutes when he fired in off the post.
Dortmund led for the first time on 84 minutes when midfielder Mario Goetze, another second-half replacement, latched onto a great through ball and fired home.
The game swung when Augsburg equalised as Michael Gregoritsch headed home a Max cross to make it 3-3 with three minutes left.