The most shocking result of Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League fixtures came courtesy of Belarusian champions BATE Borisov, who put in an absolutely stellar performance in a 3-1 victory over Bayern Munich. Bayern struggled to break down their compact midfield, and their risky substitutions led to two of BATE’s goals.
BATE Borisov vs. Bayern Munich: Final Score 3-1, hosts shock Bavarians
BATE Borisov earned a spectacular 3-1 victory over Bayern Munich, shutting down the visitors for most of the game.
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BATE opened the scoring 23 minutes in through Denis Polyakov. Aleksandr Volodko provided an unintentional assist, completely fluffing a shot attempt from 15 yards. Luckily for him, his botched attempt fell right to Pavlov, who was left unmarked by a surprised Bayern defense. Manuel Neuer was caught off guard by Volodko’s poor/lucky shot, and had no chance to make a save.
As the match wore on and Bayern struggled to break down BATE’s compact midfield, they had to make aggressive substitutions. Xherdan Shaqiri, Claudio Pizarro and Bastian Schweinsteiger entered the game for Javi Martínez, Mario Mandžukić amd Holger Badstuber by the 77th minute. Only one minute after the riskiest of those subs -- Schweinsteiger for Batstuber -- BATE made Bayern pay for their aggression. Edgar Olekhnovich and Vitali Rodionov exchanged passes at the end of a counter, setting up Rodionov for narrow-angle shot from close range that he put into the roof of the net.
Franck Ribéry gave Bayern a bit of false hope with a late stoppage time goal, but that only encouraged Bayern to become even more aggressive. Their back line was predictably opened up as a result of their frantic push for an equalizer, with substitute Renan Bressan sealing the win for BATE in the 94th minute.
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