Bundesliga: Bayern Munich (0-1) Augsburg | Recap and Instant Analysis

Augsburg came away with a 1-0 victory for the second consecutive season, taking al three points out of Allianz Arena on Saturday. They handed Bavarian neighbors Bayern Munich their fourth loss in a row.

The Fuggerstädter went up a man early in the match, Pepe Reina getting sent of for denying a goal scoring opportunity. Raul Bobadilla finally found the breakthrough in the 71st minute, back heeling a delivery from Bayern loanee Pierre-Emile Højbjerg to give Augsburg the winning goal.

Pep Guardiola ran out a starting lineup laced with far more regulars than expected.  No sign of players like Gianluca Gaudino or Sinan Kurt to give players like Bastian Schweinsteiger or Thomas Müller a rest.  Was the Bayern coach looking to get a positive result to lift the team's spirits before a very tough comeback attempt against Barcelona next Tuesday?  Or did he take the game against Augsburg seriously enough?  Or did he not want to throw all the youngsters into the fire?

Those questions will remain unanswered, because Reina, with considerable help from a napping defense, put Bayern a man down with only 13 minutes on the clock. He took down Bobadilla in the box, earning a red card, thereby forcing Guardiola to take off Philipp Lahm (at least someone got a rest) to bring on Manuel Neuer.

Luckily for Bayern, the resulting penalty kick caused by Reina was put against the post by Augsburg captain Paul Verhaegh (for his first miss in seven PK attempts this season), keeping the game level.

For anyone tuning in late, unless they were actually counting red jerseys on the field, it would have been hard to tell that Bayern were a man down.  Despite the disadvantage, the Bundesliga champions played their game, dominating possession, moving the ball, and creating chances, although none of these were particularly dangerous, as Augsburg continued with their original game plan, standing deep and waiting for quick counter attacks.  The guests got their chances, but didn't do a very good job of putting them away.  The teams would go into the locker rooms with a scoreless tie.

The second half saw Markus Weinzierl bring on Højbjerg to face his parent club, and he saw immediate improvements in Augsburg's game.  Bayern controlled the game in the second half, and created some chances, but the Reds were not able to get the ball by Marwin Hitz.  The game had slowed down by the time the guests would end up notching the only goal they would need, on a nice run down the left side by the Danish international, whose cross would find Bobadilla for a fancy heel trick, getting the ball past Neuer.

Despite a determined effort by the ten Bayern players, especially Jérôme Boateng, who was everywhere, trying to get the equalizer, Bayern weren't able to get a goal to save a draw, and FC Bayern, uncharacteristically, went down to their fourth consecutive loss of this season (across all competitions).

Next up, a seemingly impossible task of reversing a 0-3 deficit against Barcelona, when the La Liga leaders come to visit Munich on Tuesday.  The only good news from today's game is that nobody appeared to get hurt, even though Manuel Neuer gave everyone a scare in the first half, when he had the physios work on his lower leg.

Match Details

Bayern Munich (0-1) FC Augsburg | Allianz Arena
FCA: Raul Bobadilla (71')

Bayern XI: Reina (RC 13'); Bernat, Dante, Boateng, Weiser; Schweinsteiger, Thiago, Lahm (Neuer 14'); Götze, Lewandowski (Pizarro 74'), Müller (Rafinha 74')

Augsburg XI: Hitz; Baba, Klavan, Hong, Verhaegh; Kohr, Baier, Feulner; Esswein (Werner 32'), Altintop (Højbjerg 45'), Bobadilla (Mölders 83')

Instant Analysis

• Despite being a man down for most of the game, Bayern controlled possession, with a whopping 70 percent.
• Regulars like Schweinsteiger, Juan Bernat, Boateng and Thiago Alcantara played the full game, raising questions on how fresh they will be for Tuesday's CL clash.
• Bayern hit the "woodwork" twice, once on Mario Götze's strike to the left post in the ninth minute, the other on Robert Lewandowski's shot to the crossbar in the 45th minute.
• Boateng was hitting long ball after long ball.  Some hit their target (through ball to Lewy, on his crossbar shot), others missing and giving Augsburg quick counter attacks against an out-of-position defense.
• Dante once again made some mental mistakes, bobbling the ball and turning it over to the opponents, but also had some good defensive plays, stopping some big opportunites for Augsburg.