Hannover 96 Vs. Bayern Munich, 2011 Bundesliga: Hannover Ends Bayern Unbeaten Streak 2-1

Hannover 96 defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 to end Bayern’s unbeaten run that dated back to the opening Bundesliga fixture against Borussia Mönchengladbach on August 7.

Manuel Neuer had gone 771 consecutive minutes in the Bundesliga without seeing the ball in the back of his net, but it came to an end on Sunday when Philipp Lahm fouled Steve Cherundolo in the penalty area setting up a penalty by Mohammed Abdellaoue. Neuer chose the correct side, but Abdellaoue’s shot beat him to the spot and Hannover took an improbable 1-0 lead.

Only a few minutes after the goal, a pushing and shoving ensued and Jerome Boateng was shown a red card for putting his hands to the throat of Christian Schulz. Bayern new they were up against it at this point down a goal, down a man, and away from home.

Bayern continued to attack and nearly struck just before halftime, but Mario Gomez saw his shot from inside the six yard area go over the goal.

Christian Pander would double the Hannover lead in the 50th minute when his shot took a wicked deflection off of Luis Gustavo sending Neuer the wrong direction. The Bayern goalkeeper scrambled back but was unable to stop the ball from going into the net. Shortly after the goal, Hannover skipper Cherundolo was shown a red card for his second yellow after he pulled Ribery’s shirt to stop a break.

Bayern began to throw numbers forward in attack but were unable to find the goal to bring them back. It wasn’t until the 83rd minute when Thomas Müller’s excellent diagonal ball into the box was put past Ron-Robert Zieler by David Alaba. Bayern were running on all cylinders at this point, and it seemed possible that they would find their way back for a point.

Minutes from the end, Bastian Schweinsteiger saw his shot strike the post after some nice interplay between himself, Franck Ribery, and Toni Kroos. Philipp Lahm appeared to be felled in the penalty area, but the referee waved it off. Alaba would see his free kick miss just over the crossbar and the referee blew the final whistle.

Even with the loss, Bayern are still in first place in the Bundesliga, however, their lead as dwindled to only three points over last year’s champs Borussia Dortmund. Hannover moves into fourth place level on points with Schalke and only four behind Bayern.

It’s official, folks. The race for the Bundesliga crown is back on.