A day of late drama in the Bundesliga saw Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen snatch late wins and Frankfurt rescue a point in the dying minutes. Borussia Mönchengladbach warmed up for a date with Barcelona with a win.
Hamburg 0-1 Bayern Munich
(Kimmich 89′)
Bruno Labbadia’s future at Hamburg remains uncertain after Joshua Kimmich scored with a minute left to leave the Northern Germans without a win this season.
An encouraging first period from the hosts, who had won just one point from their previous four games, ended without a goal for either side. Champions Bayern turned up the heat after half-time though, with an inspirational performance from Rene Adler keeping Carlo Ancelotti’s team at bay.
With the clock ticking down and the Hamburg coach, taking charge of the club for the 100th time, looking set to earn some respite from the pressure, Bayern managed to grind out the winning goal with a minute to spare. Franck Ribery cross from the left set up Joshua Kimmich and the young German’s tap in maintained Bayern’s 100% record under Ancelotti.
Mainz 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Levekusen left it late to beat Mainz
(Malli 31′, Bell 35′ – Hernandez 32′, 66′, 90+1)
Javier Hernandez scored a hat-trick as Bayer Leverkusen came from behind twice to seal three points at Mainz. The Mexican international bagged the winner in stoppage time to secure Leverkusen’s second win of the season.
Yunus Malli’s cute opener for Mainz on 31 minutes was cancelled out by a fine finish from Hernandez inside the box just a minute later. Leverkusen have won just one of five league games this term and when Stefan Bell added a scrappy second on 35 minutes they looked in big trouble.
But Chicharito was, once again, the savior for Leverkusen. The Mexican striker scored just past the hour mark before sealing the win in the final minute with a header to ease the early season pressure on his boss Roger Schmidt.
Eintracht Frankfurt 3-3 Hertha BSC
(Fabian 39′, Meier 45′, Hector 90+2′ – Ibisevic 19′ pen, 58′, Esswein 64′)
Chelsea loanee Michael Hector scored in the second minute of added time to snatch a point for Eintracht Frankfurt after a scintillating encounter with Hertha Berlin.
Pal Dardai’s side led through Vedad Ibisevic’s penalty on 19 minutes, but it was Niko Kovac’s men who finished the half strongest, scoring two goals in six minutes – Marco Fabian’s sweeping finish from close range was followed by Alex Meier’s instinctive finish after Hertha failed to clear a corner.
But the team from the German capital showed grit and determination to level through Ibisevic and then looked to have won following Alexander Esswein’s superbly curled 64th minute strike.
Instead, it was Jonas Hector and Niko Kovac celebrating at the end as they maintained their unbeaten home record this season thanks to the Jamaican defender bundled stoppage time finish.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0 Ingolstadt
Borussia Mönchengladbach were impressive in their 2-0 win
(Stindl 27′, Wendt 77′)
Borussia Mönchengladbach prepared for a midweek Champions League tussle against Barcelona with a comfortable 2-0 win over Ingolstadt at Borussia-Park.
Andre Schubert made four changes to his side ahead of the big game in midweek with Mo Dahoud starting for just the second time this season. Captain Lars Stindl broke the deadlock on 27 minutes, before Julian Korb struck the post in the second half. Oscar Wendt secured the points late on – Gladbach’s 10th home league win in a row.
Augsburg 1-0 Darmstadt
(Finnbogason 47′)
Dirk Schuster’s Augsburg claimed a win against his former club thanks to a second half goal from Alfred Finnbogason.
At the end of a tepid first period that saw Raul Bobadilla limp off with a shoulder injury, Darmstadt went down to 10 men after Leon Gurawa was shown his second yellow card. A bright restart from the Southern Germans led to the clinching goal, Koo’s precise cross headed home by the Icelandic international.
