Modest Bochum sensationally thrash Bayern Munich thanks to their stunning first-half display

4 years AGO
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Sensation: On February 12 at the stadium Ruhrstadion in the city of Bochum the 22nd round of the German Bundesliga saw newcomer VfL Bochum 1848 suddenly crushing the championship hegemon Bayern Munich thanks to 4 goals scored in the first half. The Reds have not conceded so many goals in one half since 1975.

Everything started as usual: on the 9th minute Robert Lewandowski, who responded to Kingsley Koman‘s header, opened the scoring.

And then, something went wrong for Munich: after five minutes, Bochum managed to broke on the counterattack to level the score. Christopher Antwi-Adjei did his best, first putting Niklas Süle (who will be leaving for Borussia Dortmund for free this summer) out of his way and then firing the ball into the far left corner – classy moment.

Bayern added to the sharpness of their attacks after that, but Bochum were not going to settle down and were occasionally making dangerous raids on the Munich goal. And imagine that: towards the end of the half they managed to turn the game upside down, the hosts scored three more goals. 

On 38 minutes, ex-Brighton forward Jurgen Lokadia converted an 11-meter penalty against Bayern (earned thanks to poor play of Upamecano). 40 minutes into the match, following a pass from Patrick Osterhage, Christian Gamboa got on the scoresheet as well. Four minutes later, Holman added one more.

In the second half, Bayern responded only with another goal by Lewandowski: on 75 minutes, he made the double with a nice shot after the free-kick. A few minutes before the final whistle, Robert could have scored a hat-trick, but he hit the crossbar. The final score stood at 2-4.

You can see all the goals here:

Julian Nagelsmann congratulated Bochum and said he would not criticize his players:  

“We played a very bad first half. We had a plan and it didn’t work, so I won’t criticize the team. I should have reacted and made substitutions earlier. The second half was better, but it was too late. We played better in the second half, except for the first couple of minutes when we almost missed the fifth. If we had scored earlier, it would have been more interesting.”

And here’s what the Bochum striker Christian Gamboa thinks about this match:

Bayern Munich is still in control of the Bundesliga: they are first in the German league table with a 9-point gap to Borussia. Nagelsmann’s team picked 52 points in 22 games. Bochum (28 points) is in 11th place.

  • Bayern conceded four goals for the first time this Bundesliga season. Prior to that, it had never gotten more than two.
  • All the goals Munich team conceded in the first half – such in the championship of Germany with the club did not happen since 1975. Back then, five goals came from Eintracht (the match itself ended 0:6).
  • Only Robert Lewandowski, who has already scored 37 goals in 30 games in the 2021/22 season, can rejoice modestly. The Pole continues to pull away from the Bundesliga top scorers’ chart, scoring his 26th goal. His main pursuer Patrick Schick has 18.