Bayern Munich needs Lewandowski penalty to overcome Augsburg
Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich needed an 82nd-minute penalty from top scorer Robert Lewandowski to snatch a 1-0 victory over visitors Augsburg on Saturday and protect its nine-point lead with five matches remaining.
Published : Apr 09, 2022 21:31 IST
Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich needed an 82nd-minute penalty from top scorer Robert Lewandowski to snatch a 1-0 victory over visitors Augsburg on Saturday and protect its nine-point lead with five matches remaining.
Lewandowski converted the spot kick awarded for a hand ball, breaking Augsburg's valiant resistance, to keep Bayern comfortably clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund, winner 2-0 over VfB Stuttgart on Friday, and on course for a record-extending 10th straight league crown.
Bayern, which suffered its first Champions League loss of the season in midweek, going down 1-0 to Villarreal in the quarter-final first leg, was toothless for much of the game.
It was shut out by a hard-working Augsburg defence, lacked any real tempo in its game and didn't manage a single corner kick in the first half.
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Lewandowski thought he had finally broken the deadlock in the Bavarian derby with a 47th-minute header but Augsburg keeper Rafal Gikiewicz somehow got a hand to the ball to push it away.
The keeper made an equally good save in the 62nd, palming a deflected Joshua Kimmich shot wide as Bayern started to make some inroads.
The Bavarians finally won the penalty after a VAR review of a Reece Oxford hand ball and Lewandowski stepped up to send Gikiewicz the wrong way for his 32nd league goal of the campaign.
Kimmich then hit the crossbar with a powerful shot a little later as Bayern took complete control of the game in the final minutes.