(Football news) Bayern is now 13 points behind Bayer Leverkusen following their loss in the Der Klassiker last week. If Xabi Alonso’s team is to lose the title from this point on, a massive comeback will be necessary. With goals from Karim Adeyemi and Julian Ryerson putting Bayern out of the game in front of their home crowd on Saturday, the Bavarians’ 11-game unbeaten streak against Borussia Dortmund came to an end.
In addition, it was the first Bundesliga home loss for Bayern against Dortmund in ten years. In the nine prior Bundesliga encounters at the Allianz Arena, Bayern had won every one of them, scoring 37 goals.
Manager Thomas Tuchel, who will leave at the end of the season, conceded that their title chances are now gone, after Leverkusen left it late to beat Hoffenheim last week, extending the gap to an almost-unassailable 13 points.
Bayern’s only chances of silverware now lie in Europe, as they will face Arsenal in a two-legged quarter-final in the Champions League over the next two weeks. While Tuchel and the Bayern side may have their attention elsewhere, this will be Heidenheim’s biggest game of the season, at home to the biggest club in the land.
This is their first-ever competitive meeting here, as the previous two were both at the Allianz and provided the neutrals with two incredible games of football.
Bayern won 4-2 in the reverse, coming back strongly after being pegged back to 2-2 from 2-0 up, but that was nothing in comparison to the remarkable encounter the two had in the DFB-Pokal quarter-finals back in 2019.
Frank Schmidt was also in charge back then, facing Niko Kovac, and after going 1-0 down, Heidenheim then got a boost as Bayern were reduced to 10 men, and they quickly went 2-1 up.
Bayern’s quality against what was at the time a second-tier club was evident, and they rallied to go 4-2 up, but Heidenheim would not let up and levelled at 4-4, before Robert Lewandowski’s late penalty sealed a dramatic 5-4 win for the Bavarians.
In their debut Bundesliga season, Heidenheim have been excellent, with safety all but assured and still an opportunity to make a run for Europe. Those hopes for a first-ever continental appearance took a hit last weekend though, as Stuttgart denied them from a huge three points late on in a thrilling 3-3 draw.
After going 2-0 down, Alexander Nubel’s own goal got Schmidt’s men back into the game, before Tim Kleindienst netted twice in 60 seconds with five minutes to play to put them 3-2 up, but Deniz Undav snatched a point for the hosts in the eighth minute of additional time.
They are only six points out of seventh place, thus even if the draw was ultimately a favorable result, their current winning streak was extended to 11 games. Even though they have only lost three of those eleven games, they still need to win more to have any chance of qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
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