Only a few minutes were missing and 1. FSV Mainz 05 would have achieved something historic. The bottom of the Bundesliga almost gave FC Bayern Munich its first home defeat since 2006 against a Bundesliga bottom team with a 2-2 (1-1) draw. Harry Kane saved the record champions a point with a penalty in the 87th minute after Jae-Sung Lee (68th) and Kacper Potulski (45th + 1) had turned things around after Lennart Karl (29th) gave Bayern the lead.
The problems with stationary and high balls almost became their downfall again. The first example: In the 17th minute, Stefan Bell headed at teammate Lee in the FCB penalty area, from whose head the ball bounced onto the crossbar – almost giving the visitors the lead, who had taken two points from the previous nine league games.
Bavaria’s Karl benefits from Kane ricochet
It was a wake-up call for Bayern, who then stepped on the accelerator on offense. But Harry Kane showed unusual weaknesses in the finish, English striker Daniel Batz headed in from four meters, who reacted strongly but shouldn’t have had the opportunity to do so (20th). Shortly afterwards, Josip Stanisic headed just past the Mainz goal (23′).
Kane also missed a shot in the 29th minute – but this attempt turned out to be a stroke of luck because Serge Gnabry received the rushed ball, played into the middle where Karl had taken off and converted from close range (29th). During the week, the 17-year-old became the youngest player in the competition’s history to score for the third time in a row in the Champions League – and now he was also celebrating in the Bundesliga.
Potulski uses Standard weakness of FC Bayern
The fact that Kane wasn’t allowed to celebrate a very special goal afterwards was due to Danny da Costa’s body. Bayern’s Knipser took off and shot towards the Mainz goal with a side kick, but his opponent got the ball to his body and thus spoiled an absolute dream goal for Kane (36th).
But the faces in Munich became even longer shortly before the break. Potulski was all alone able to push a free kick cross into the goal at the second post (45th+1). For the 18-year-old, it was already a career highlight in his second Bundesliga game – but he then had to wait three and a half minutes until his goal got past the video check due to a possible offside position. And so Bayern conceded their tenth goal of the season – six of them from set pieces. “Very, very annoying“Joshua Kimmich thought so. Because that way Bayern would have made the game open again.
Munich doesn’t come out of the quark, Lee scores for Mainz
In fact, the record champions had to nibble on this goal, at least that was the impression given by their poor performance after the break. The next chance to score only came in the 60th minute when Karl crossed to Gnabry, who didn’t hit the ball properly (60th). The Kompany team lacked pace and ideas – it seemed as if they lacked enthusiasm after the mistakes made by their pursuers RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund.
And when there were these moments of Bavarian class, the attack lacked precision. Like in the 64th minute, when Kimmich played beautifully to Gnabry, who was denied by Batz, the follow-up shot was blocked by a defender in front of the empty goal. Mainz, on the other hand, showed how efficiency works: Lee headed a great long ball from Bell into the net for a surprising lead (68th) – suddenly the sensation was in the air.
Mainz Potulski can’t keep his hands off Bayern’s Kane
Nicolas Jackson didn’t change that when he shot from close range, but the ball went out of bounds (75′). And so Bayern’s first home defeat against a Bundesliga bottom team since November 9, 2006 appeared. At that time, Munich had lost 0-1 to Hannover 96, a little more than 19 years later Mainz had a day that is only very rarely possible.
But that didn’t happen because Potulski pulled Kane’s jersey in his own penalty area. There were penalties, and no matter how slow the day was, the Bayern striker didn’t miss such an opportunity: he safely converted the penalty to make it 2-2 (87′). And so Mainz not only missed out on a sensation, but also lost two very important points.
Urs Fischer’s successful debut
One of the stories of the game was the Bundesliga comeback of the new Mainz coach Urs Fischer. He had sworn the team to defend compactly: “It was about principles, it was about values: I’m talking about being tireless and disgusting.” His central midfielders Lennard Maloney (14.68 kilometers) and Kaishu Sano (13.77) embodied these instructions. Fischer demands: “It has to become normal that we give everything in every game.“Mainz is still six points behind the first non-relegation place.
Although his coach’s team would have remained last as a winner, a win next Sunday against FC St. Pauli (3:30 p.m.) would have made it possible to leave the bottom of the table again. Bayern’s slip-up is much more manageable, as they were even able to extend their lead over Leipzig to nine points due to the weakness of the competition. The aim is to win against the bottom team in the table, “but I still believe that we are on the right track“, said Joshua Kimmich.
Nevertheless, the Kompany team will want to have a successful end to the year next Sunday at 1. FC Heidenheim (5:30 p.m.).