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Eurorivals: Gladbach topple Bayern

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Eurorivals: Gladbach topple Bayern
Eurorivals: Gladbach topple Bayern
Eurorivals: Gladbach topple Bayern

Gladbach 3-1 Bayern Munich

There may still be 14 points separating the two teams but Saturday’s 3-1 victory for Gladbach over runaway leaders Bayern will go down as one of the results and performances of the German top-flight season so far.

Winning 13 and drawing one of their previous 14 Bundesliga matches, Pep Guardiola’s Bayern finally tasted defeat at the hands of a Borussia side that are unbeaten themselves in the league since the appointment of Andre Schubert as head coach.

After a tense and cagey opening period at Borussia-Park, Oscar Wendt curled beyond Manuel Neuer shortly after the interval to spark the game into life, staggeringly the first second-half goal to have been conceded by the Bavarians this season.

Suddenly the hosts were in the ascendency. With the wind in their sails and the capacity home crowd whipped into frenzy, the Foals struck the bar through Julian Korb on 66 minutes and remarkably doubled their advantage moments later, Lars Stindl volleying home from Nico Elvedi’s flick-on.

Two became three with 20 minutes to play as Fabian Johnson raced in behind to roll the ball past Neuer once more. Franck Ribery’s late consolation on his return from injury would do nothing to spoil a memorable night for Schubert’s side.

Stoke City 2-0 Manchester City

Manchester City succumbed to their third defeat in five in all competitions, defeated 2-0 by Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.

On a blustery day in the East Midlands, it was the home side’s front four of Ibrahim Afellay, Bojan Krkic, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic that stole the headlines with the latter two in particularly dazzling form.

It was Shaqiri’s cross for Arnautovic that set up the opening goal and the Swiss’ brilliant through pass that sent the Austrian in the clear for the hosts’ second all in the opening quarter of an hour. Arnautovic, formerly of Inter, could even have had a first-half hat-trick had he not rattled the upright on 43 minutes.

Stoke would continue to dominate after the break with Bojan, Arnautovic and Shaqiri all going close to adding a deserved third yet the scores remained the same to lift Mark Hughes’ side up into the top half and knock City off the top following Leicester City’s win at Swansea.

Deportivo la Coruna 1-1 Sevilla

Rounding off the weekend’s action, Sevilla warmed up for their Champions League Group D clash with Juventus on Tuesday night with a 1-1 draw against high-flying Deportivo La Coruna.

The Andalusians entered the encounter at the Riazor with just three points to their name from their previous six away matches and, following Lucas’ brilliant first-half free-kick, it looked as though there would be no further improvement to that tally.

Unai Emery’s men however raised their game after the break and were unlucky not to level the scores on two occasions as Kevin Gameiro fired over the top when through on goal and Grzegorz Krychowiak saw his long-range drive well saved by home goalkeeper German Lux.

Their pressure and endeavour eventually told 15 minutes from time as Vincent Iborra, brought on as a substitute moments earlier, lashed home instinctively from ex-Bianconero Fernando Llorente’s set-piece.

There was to be no winner on the night though as Deportivo hang on to fifth place with rivals Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao playing this evening. Sevilla, meanwhile, sit in tenth, six points off the Champions League places.

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