Bayern cannot be defeated. However, the champions need a lot of luck, a long stoppage time and Michael Olise against Bundesliga bottom team 1. FC Heidenheim in a 3:3 (1:2) draw on Saturday to avert defeat.
The French substitute scored the equalizer in the tenth minute of stoppage time. Previously, Heidenheim had taken the lead first 2-0 and then 3-2 thanks to goals from Budu Zivzivadze (22nd, 76th) and Eren Dinkci (31st). Leon Goretzka (44th, 57th) initially made up for the double deficit with a brace.
After the 4:3 in Mainz and the 4:5 at Paris Saint-Germain during the week in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League, Bayern delivered the next spectacle – but for the second time in a row without a real happy ending. And conceding eleven goals in three competitive games isn’t exactly Bayern-like either.
For bottom team Heidenheim the air is getting thinner after the 100th Bundesliga game. With 23 points, FCH remains last and needs a lot of help to overtake VfL Wolfsburg (25 points) and St. Pauli (26). Both play on Sunday.
Bayern starts dominantly, but without pressure
Even with seven changes to the starting line-up compared to the spectacle in Paris during the week, the champions were immediately the dominant team against the bottom of the table. But somehow Vincent Kompany’s team lacked the final impetus to embarrass the guests.
For a long time, a 22-meter shot from Goretzka (9th) was the only thing Munich had on goal.
Two Heidenheim gates give the people of Munich a leg up
So it took a deficit again to get Bayern up to speed. And of course Heidenheim was happy to take part. The outsider took the lead with the first shot on goal. Marnon Busch lifted a rebound from a corner back into the box. There, Zivzidadze switched the fastest and pushed the ball past Jonas Urbig from five meters to make it 1-0 and into the bottom right corner of the goal. For Zivzidadze it was the fourth goal in the last four games.
Budu Zivzivadze scored a brace for Bayern Munich.
And the second attempt by coach Frank Schmidt’s team also worked. Once again Busch had the right idea, playing deep against an advanced Bayern defense. Dinkci started off, poked the ball past the charging Urbig and then into the empty goal to make it 2-0.
Leon Goretzka conjures up a free kick Connection hit pure
The Bayern supporters burst into applause for the first time when, after 38 minutes, the first guard with Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Luis Diaz and Co. went behind the Munich goal to warm up. Because arrears do not cause Bayern to doubt. Not a 0:3 in Mainz, not a 2:5 in Paris – and of course not a 0:2 against Heidenheim.
Goretzka took the first step towards normality for the hosts: he curled a free kick from half-left into the top left corner to make it 1-2.
Vincent Kompany changes the offensive completely
At the break, Kompany switched his team back into champion mode, bringing in Joshua Kimmich, Kane, Olise and Diaz. And immediately the pressure increased. Heidenheim was deep at the back and Bayern pressed. However, another standard was needed to equalize. It was Goretzka again. This time he was in the right spot after a corner from the right and pushed the ball into the visitors’ goal from three meters to make it 2-2.
So everything seemed to be going in the same direction as the previous week, when Munich turned 0-3 into 4-3 in Mainz. A little later, Bayern’s lead was finally in the air. But a Kimmich shot from 25 meters only landed on the right post. It seemed only a matter of time.
Budu Zivzivadze scores like Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – and then comes Michael Olise
But then Zivzivadze came again. During a counterattack, the Georgian escaped from the left and then, in the best manner of his compatriot Khvicha Kvaratskhelia from PSG, turned the ball into the goal from the top right of the penalty area to make it 3-2. Until deep into stoppage time, it looked as if Bayern would lack the final answer this time.
But the football god had another idea: Olise shot from the right corner of the penalty area in just the same typical manner and distance and the ball bounced off the left post over the back of the head of Heidenheim’s goalkeeper Diant Ramaj and into the goal to make it 3-3.
Bavaria: first Paris, then Wolfsvurg – Heidenheim against Cologne
The Munich team now has the big task of coming back against PSG in the semi-final second leg of the Champions League during the week (Wednesday, 9 p.m.). They will then be guests at VfL Wolfsburg, the next basement team, on the 33rd Bundesliga matchday (Saturday, 6:30 p.m.).
Heidenheim’s possibly last Bundesliga away game starts on Sunday (5.30 p.m.) at 1. FC Köln.
