By Kartik BhattacharyyaNew Delhi, Jan 8 : There is no doubt that Bayern Munich is the top dog of Bundesliga, having won 31 titles in the competition’s history, which is almost seven times more than the next best team, Borussia Dortmund that sits on five trophies.
One team that has consistently given the German giants trouble is Borussia Monchengladbach, which, after beating Bayern 2-1 on January 7, courtesy goals from Florian Neuhaus and Stefan Lainer, now have a record 27 victories over the team popularly known as ‘FC Hollywood’.
This is not the only record they hold over the Bavarians either.’Adi’ Hutter, the coach of the team nicknamed Die Fohlen, has the most wins against Bayern’s manager, the 34-year-old prodigy Julian Nagelsmann.
This is also not the first time in this season that Gladbach have caused an upset.Back in October 2021, they thumped Bayern 5-0 in the DFB Pokal, unceremoniously ejecting them in the second round of the competition.
While this game did not have a stunning scoreline like the last contest, the method Gladbach deployed was the same as in the Cup game.Unlike other teams that are content to sit back passively against the Bayern machine, Gladbach actively pressed them high up in the field, consistently stealing the ball from the opposition and causing the defence several headaches.
But Bayern’s performance was far from rudderless as they had started off fairly brightly with Polish hitman Robert Lewandowski putting them ahead in the 18th minute.They also had their fair share of chances throughout the game and were perhaps unlucky to not come away with at least a point.
There was also the extenuating circumstance of the squad being decimated by a number of injuries as well as COVID-positive cases, leaving them without 13 players and forcing them to call upon players from their youth team to fill their bench.
So, while Nagelsmann will undoubtedly be disappointed, he will probably not need to do a complete overhaul of the team’s tactics, as Bayern have consistently been among the best in the world this season.
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