Bayern Munich extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to six points on Saturday as teenager Jamal Musiala grabbed a late winner to seal a 2-1 comeback victory at home to Mainz.
Second-half goals by Kingsley Coman and 18-year-old Musiala sealed the victory behind closed doors at Munich’s Allianz Arena after Mainz’s shock early lead.
Bayern are on target to win the German league for a tenth straight season as second-placed Dortmund drew 1-1 at Bochum.
Bayern boss Julian Nagelsmann chalked up his 100th Bundesliga win as a coach and confirmed match-winner Musiala, who had previously opted not to be vaccinated against Covid-19, has now received a vaccine.
“I am pleased that he is vaccinated and hopefully we won’t have any more problems in the second half of the season,” Nagelsmann added after Musiala had been one of five players quarantined last month as contact cases.
Bayern made a slow start at the end of a busy week after last Saturday’s 3-2 win at Dortmund and Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Barcelona to secure a sixth win from six in the Champions League’s group stages.
Mainz took a deserved lead when Karim Onisiwo headed past Manuel Neuer after 22 minutes, but Bayern levelled when Corentin Tolisso’s long pass found Coman, who fired past Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner.
Bayern sealed the win 16 minutes from time when Musiala took his marker out of the game with a superb first touch and slotted past Zentner.
Brandt equaliser rescues Dortmund
Dortmund suffered a Champions League hangover, four days after their 5-0 thumping of Besiktas, when they were held 1-1 at Bochum.
“It’s not just bad luck, you also have to want it,” said winger Julian Brandt who grabbed Dortmund’s equaliser with five minutes to go.
“We had enough chances to win and didn’t use them.”
Jude Bellingham and star striker Erling Haaland squandered chances for Dortmund before Bochum, who had won three of their four previous league games, took a deserved lead.
After winger Christopher Antwi-Adjei was fouled in the area, Bochum’s Sebastian Polter converted the resulting penalty to put the hosts 1-0 up at the break.
Dortmund had a Marius Wolf goal disallowed when the VAR spotted Bellingham offside, but the visitors breathed a sigh of relief when replacement Brandt smashed in the equaliser.
Domenico Tedesco made a winning start as new coach of RB Leipzig, who cruised to a 4-1 home romp against Moenchengladbach to stop the rot after three straight German league defeats.
Leipzig took the lead when Josko Gvardiol headed in a free-kick, then striker Andre Silva scored from close range and hit the crossbar.
Gladbach pulled a late goal back through Ramy Bensebaini, but Leipzig made sure of the win with two goals in stoppage time by Christopher Nkunku and Benjamin Henrichs.
Freiburg yielded fourth-spot in the table to visitors Hoffenheim, who poached a 2-1 away win in the Black Forest as US defender Chris Richards, on loan from Bayern, blasted in a stoppage time header.
Having crashed out of the Champions League on Wednesday, Wolfsburg slumped to their fifth straight defeat in all competitions by losing 2-0 at home to Stuttgart, who earned their first away league win of the season.
Stuttgart took the lead a man down when defender Konstantinos Mavropanos unleashed a superb shot with Roberto Massimo off injured.
The Wolfsburg team was booed off the pitch at half-time by their own fans.
Stuttgart doubled their lead through striker Philipp Foerster, but the visitors squandered a penalty chance when Omar Marmoush’s chipped spot-kick attempt hit the crossbar.