It had been the first time in 40 years that these teams met while first and second in the Bundesliga, and Sunday's match between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich didn't disappoint, despite the 0-0 score. Coming in, both teams were unbeaten in the league; Bayern with six wins and two draws, Gladbach with four wins and four draws. League leaders Bayern travelled to Borussia Park in search of their fifth consecutive league win after drawing Hamburg nil-nil on September 20.
Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Bayern Munich: Final score 0-0, both still unbeaten
A hard fought nil-nil draw at Borussia-Park saw both Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayern Munich stay unbeaten, remaining second and first in the Bundesliga respectively.
The 54,000-plus at Borussia-Park were rocking from the start in what was one of the biggest matches so far this season. Coming off a sixth place finish, Gladbach showed positive signs last year, but didn’t look like a team that would challenge Bayern for the title.
Gladbach obviously were going to be on the defensive end for a lot of the match, but they knew there would be opportunities to play on the counter attack. One such chance came 34 minutes in. André Hahn burst down the right wing, storming by David Alaba with pure pace. He played in an early cross that was able to find Max Kruse, between Dante and Mehdi Benatia, the two Bayern centre backs. Manuel Neuer was coming out, and Kruse had to strike it quickly. The shot hit the Bayern keeper's left hand and Neuer was able to control.
The match went to half scoreless, which was a fair reflection of the play. Organized defending from Lucien Favre's side prevented the prolific Bayern attack of Mario Götze, Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski from finding the net in the opening 45 minutes.
In the 51st minute, BMG found themselves on a three-on-two break on the counter. Kruse passed to Hahn on the right. His strike across goal was barely palmed away by Neuer. Raffael was ever so close to having a tap in, but Rafinha was there to clear it away, beating the fellow Brazilian to the ball by half a step.
Bayern had a penalty shout in the 77th minute, when Martin Stranzl put in a tackle on Götze. It was clear on the replay that the Gladbach defender got the ball, and fortunately the referee was in a good position to see it as he waved play on.
Neuer was probably the man of the match for Bayern, making five saves. Yann Sommer was excellent in goal as well for Gladbach, but with any clean sheet against Pep Guardiola's side, all of the defenders deserve loads of credit. Substitute Claudio Pizarro almost stole it at the end for the Bavarians, but Sommer made his fourth save.
Near the end of the match Granit Xhaka had to be helped off by two trainers, not a good sign for Gladbach. They will be ecstatic with a draw, against a Bayern Munich side that has been playing otherworldly football at times this season.
Borussia Monchengladbach: Yann Sommer; Julian Korb, Martin Stranzl, Álvaro Domínguez, Oscar Wendt; André Hahn (Fabian Johnson 81') , Christoph Kramer, Granit Xhaka, Patrick Herrmann (Ibrahima Traoré 81'); Raffael (Thorgan Hazard 90'), Max Kruse.
Bayern Munich: Manuel Neuer; Rafinha (Franck Ribery 66'), Mehdi Benatia, Dante, David Alaba; Philipp Lahm, Xabi Alonso, Juan Bernat; Thomas Müller (Claudio Pizarro 74'), Mario Götze (Xherdan Shaqiri 84') ; Robert Lewandowski.
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