Bayern maintain eight-point lead with draw

Saturday's top-of-the-table match between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern ended in a goalless draw. It was a hard-fought affair that was balanced at first before Leverkusen upped the ante and restricted Bayern to next to nothing, but goals refused to come as Munich extend their unbeaten run in all competitions to six games.

Bayern started with Manuel Neuer in goal and Konrad Laimer, Dayot Upamecano, Minjae Kim and Hiroki Ito - making his full debut for the club - in defence. Joshua Kimmich and Aleksandar Pavlović anchored a midfield featuring Michael Olise, Jamal Musiala and Kingsley Coman, with Harry Kane up front. Josip Stanišić, Leon Goretzka, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané and Sacha Boey took over from Ito, Pavlović, Olise, Coman and Musiala in the second half.

No goals

It was an intense battle and clear-cut chances were few and far between at first. The home side upped the ante after 20 minutes, Neuer denying Florian Wirtz before Jeremie Frimpong's header crashed off the crossbar.

Piero Hincapié's cross soon found the charging Nathan Tella, whose volley shaved the bar. Munich eventually calmed the game down, with Kane heading over from Olise's free-kick as it remained goalless at half-time.

Neuer to the rescue

The pattern continued after the break, with Leverkusen in the driving seat and pressing Bayern high. Tella saw an acrobatic effort go wide and a header cleared off the line by Ito. The particularly industrious Upamecano blocked against Frimpong, and Wirtz fired wide before Goretzka miscued a header at the other end in a rare Bayern attack.

Neuer beat Wirtz to a cross and made a great reaction save to deny Amine Adli from close range in added time, with Wirtz putting the rebound just wide. It meant the game ended goalless and Bayern maintain their eight-point lead in the table over the defending champions, sitting on 55 points from 22 matches.

The Bavarians will be back in action on Tuesday when they entertain Celtic in the Champions League play-off second leg.

Live match report for fcbayern.com by Greg Salmen