A disastrous first-half display was the root cause of Bayern’s first Bundesliga defeat of the season, for although Louis van Gaal’s side showed far greater urgency after the interval, they were unable to undo the damage and ended up losing 2-1 to promoted FSV Mainz.
The boisterous 20,300 full house at the Bruchweg stadium saw a dream first half for Mainz and a nightmare 45 minutes for Bayern. Andreas Ivanschitz and Aristide Bancé handed the home side a 2-0 lead at the break, although it could have been a lot worse for the visitors had Bancé not hit the bar and missed a couple of glorious chances too.
But Munich emerged for the second half like men possessed, and Nikolce Noveski turned sub Thomas Müller’s shot into his own net to reduce the arrears just two minutes after the restart.
A couple of half-hearted FSV breaks apart, it was all FCB in a vastly improved second-half display, but home keeper Heinz Müller played a blinder to keep out everything the men in black could throw at him.
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