Augsburg: spirited underdogs who know how to shock Bayern Munich
Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich have struggled against regional rivals Augsburg several times in the recent and more distant past. bundesliga.com outlines the upsets.
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Whisper it quietly, for few Augsburg fans would even rate their chances of beating Bayern as being too likely. The imbalance between the two clubs' title collection alone is vast - once Bundesliga 2 runners-up versus 32-time German champions. Augsburg do have a decent track record of pulling off the unexpected in fixtures against their regional rivals, though.
With both sides keen to take points in Munich this weekend - with Bayern in the thick of a frantic title race and Augsburg keen to ensure their survival - we examine how the lesser known of the Bundesliga's two Bavarian sides have managed to upset the apple cart on multiple occasions.
Augsburg 1-0 Bayern Munich, 17 September 2022
'Bayern always score' was the conventional wisdom going into Matchday 7 of the 2022/23 season - with some justification, as the champions had found the net in the 87 previous Bundesliga outings.
Watch: Augsburg 1-0 Bayern Munich - highlights
A certain Rafal Gikiewicz had other ideas though. Augsburg's Polish goalkeeper pulled off six saves to stop the Munich scoring machine in its tracks. Leroy Sane, Sadio Mane, Jamal Musiala, Leon Goretzka and Thomas Müller all had efforts - but there was just no way past Gikiewicz. Even Manuel Neuer had a go - sending in a strong header from a stoppage-time corner that Gikiewicz leapt to stop and condemn Bayern to their first defeat of the campaign.
Bavaria-born Mergim Berisha was the winning goalscorer for Augsburg by turning in an Iago free-kick. That should not have been too great a surprise for the Bayern defenders - the striker netted in his third consecutive match against the champions, after all, having scored for Red Bull Salzburg in both legs of a UEFA Champions League last-16 encounter in 2021/22.
Bayern Munich 1-0 Augsburg, 9 April 2022
A 1-0 home win is not something to lose any sleep about. With the encounter on Matchday 29 of 2021/22 level going into the final 10 minutes, it did fit the pattern of Bayern struggling against Augsburg in the recent past, though. It was indeed the narrowest home win for Bayern between February 2022 and February 2023 (although they had six home draws in that time).
Watch: Bayern Munich 1-0 Augsburg - highlights
Gikiewicz had a surprisingly quiet first-half in Munich, and denied Joshua Kimmich before Bayern made a late increase in pressure count. Robert Lewandowski slammed home a penalty in the 82nd minute to seal the narrow win.
Augsburg had gone very close to stopping a run of Bayern scoring in consecutive home matches that began in February 2020 - and the champions went on to make it 51 consecutive home matches with a goal with a 3-0 win against Union Berlin in February 2023, the third best in Bundesliga history.
Augsburg 2-1 Bayern, 19 November 2021
Bayern had already opened up a comfortable advantage at the top of the Bundesliga table when a typical Augsburg upset came. Despite a seemingly never-ending wave of Bayern pressure, Augsburg were somehow able to snatch a 2-1 lead to take into half-time with Mads Pedersen and Andre Hahn goals followed by a Lewandowski strike.
Watch: Augsburg 2-1 Bayern Munich - highlights
Lewandowski and Alphonso Davies both spurned chances to level in the second half, and a Gikiewicz save to deny his fellow Pole along with a frantic defensive effort in the final phase got the victory over the line.
While Bayern enjoy the better overall record in encounters between the two sides (winning 17 out of 23 meetings since Augsburg gained promotion in 2011), there were a couple of occasions in the past decade when Augsburg managed to underscore their potential to upset their regional Goliaths.
A Sascha Molders first-half goal secured Augsburg's first ever Bundesliga win against a Bayern side featuring Neuer and Toni Kroos in April 2014. That was a Bayern team especially unused to losing under Pep Guardiola - in fact, Augsburg ended the longest-ever unbeaten run in Bundesliga history of 53 matches.
The presence of Lewandowski and Müller in the Bayern starting XI in May 2015 could not prevent another 1-0 loss, with Paraguay's Raul Bobadilla netting the winner. That was one of 10 goals Bobadilla fired that season as Augsburg secured their best Bundesliga finish yet soon afterwards - fifth.
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