MAINZ: Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich went down 2-1 at Mainz 05 as their unbeaten league run this season was ended after Lee Jae-sung scored either side of the break on Saturday.

South Korea’s Lee struck four minutes before halftime after pouncing on a defensive blunder by the lacklustre visitors.

The 32-year-old then doubled the hosts’ lead on the hour, turning beautifully in the box to finish a superb attacking move that left the Bayern defence frozen to the spot.

It was the first league loss for Bayern’s Vincent Kompany, who last week became only the third coach in Bundesliga history not to suffer defeat in his first 13 league games in charge.

“We played against a team with a lot of life and spirit and they were prepared to fight for every moment,” Kompany said.

“From our side there was not a lack of fighting. We did that to the best of our ability. Today we were not at our best.”

The Bundesliga goes into a three-week winter break after next week’s round of matches.

“This game, we can’t play it any more. It’s done,” Kompany said. “We’ll use it to build a fire for next week. That’s the only way to give an answer. This game in Mainz this year we can’t win it but in the future ... we’re looking forward to it.”

The Bavarians, who pulled a goal back through Leroy Sane in the 87th minute, are top on 33 points, four ahead of Bayer Leverkusen, who won 2-0 at Augsburg. Mainz are sixth with 22.

Bayern were missing eight injured players including top scorer Harry Kane.

Meanwhile, defending champions Leverkusen continued their recent resurgence, winning comfortably at Augsburg, their seventh victory in a row.

Martin Terrier put Leverkusen in front 14 minutes in, curling the ball home with his first touch after a lovely low cross from Jeremie Frimpong.

Florian Wirtz added a second in the 40th minute when he controlled the ball, sold the Augsburg defence a dummy before skipping a shot across the grass and into the bottom corner.

Elsewhere, Union Berlin drew 1-1 at home against last-placed Bochum in a game suspended by around half an hour after the visiting goalkeeper was hit by an object thrown from the crowd.

Bochum, were reduced to 10 men when Koji Miyoshi was red carded 13 minutes in, took the lead through Ibrahima Sissoko despite the deficit 10 minutes later.

Union levelled things up through Benedict Hollerbach in the 33rd minute, but were unable to take advantage against their undermanned opponents.

With the game in stoppage time and Union pushing, Patrick Drewes was hit by what appeared to be a cigarette lighter, with the referee ordering the players off the pitch.

When they returned, both sides kicked the ball bet­ween themselves until the clock wound down, apparently in agreement not to attack after the incident.

In Saturday’s late game, goals from Derrick Koehn and Marvin Ducksch took Werder Bremen to a 2-0 win at St Pauli, taking them up to seventh in the table while Borussia Moenchengladbach thumped Holstein Kiel 4-1.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024