Manuel Neuer gaffes cost Bayern Munich, lose 2-0 to Gladbach

Bayern Munich couldn't stop Borussia Mönchengladbach and lost at home for the first time this season. In a battle of the two best defensive teams in the Bundesliga, Raffael scored a brace to lead Gladbach to their biggest win of the season.

FCB started strong in the match, jumping out to control the match by possessing the ball. Gladbach were content to sit back with two banks for four and strike on the counter. Strike on the counter, they did.

The hosts seemed to be cruising until a scary moment for Bayern in the first half. Arjen Robben had to be removed from the match after a bad tackle from Tony Jantschke. Robben was subbed out and eventually left the arena for scans.

Half an hour of dominance means nothing when the opposition score first. In one of their few forays into Bayern's side of the field in the first half, Gladbach scored a goal that never should have been. Raffael shot the ball from the top of the penalty area at Manuel Neuer. The ball was low and fast but easily savable. Neuer reached down to pick up the ball, but it bounced off of him and slipped across the goal line.

That's right. You read it correctly. Manuel Neuer made a mistake. Even deities are allowed one mistake every now and then.

Bayern would end the first half with nearly two-thirds possession but unable to find the key that would unlock Gladbach's defense.

Gladbach started coming back into the match in the second half and started to test the Bayern defense even more with crisp counter attacks. Neuer was called upon to make multiple saves to keep Gladbach's lead at only one.

Then, another counter caused another goal. Christoph Kramer led the attack into Bayern's third of the field before feeding a perfect pass to Raffael. His shot struck the back of the net after going under a diving Neuer to make it 2-0 to Gladbach. While nothing is guaranteed, Neuer should've done better with this shot.

Bayern pressed forward and had several opportunities in the remaining thirteen minutes to score, but Gladbach goalkeeper Yann Sommer was more than up to the task on the day. The Swiss goalkeeper made several fantastic saves and outshown his positional counterpart on the day.

With Wolfsburg drawing earlier in the day, Bayern's lead at the top of the Bundesliga falls to ten points. Now, Bayern head off into the international break before returning to the field at Signal Iduna Park where they face Borussia Dortmund on April 4.