Humiliation as Bayern lose 5-1
Niko Kovac admitted his future as Bayern Munich coach hung in the balance Saturday after a 5-1 thrashing at Eintracht Frankfurt -- the club’s heaviest Bundesliga defeat for 10 years.
Bayern are now four points behind leaders Moenchengladbach after their biggest league loss since a humiliating 5-1 drubbing in April 2009 at Wolfsburg.
That defeat a decade ago eventually cost Jurgen Klinsmann his job as boss and Kovac could face a similar fate as Frankfurt shredded 10-man Bayern after defender Jerome Boateng was sent off in the ninth minute.
Kovac has been in charge since June 2018, winning the league and cup double last season, but could only offer a glum “I don’t know” when asked about his gut feeling concerning the future.
“I know how this business works -- I am not naive. My feeling is not important, the ones who make the decisions are the ones you have to ask at the end of the day,” he added.
“After the red card, everything went out the window. That shouldn’t have happened to us and it’s not what we expect from ourselves. We made too many mistakes.”
Goals by Filip Kostic, Djibril Sow, David Abraham and Martin Hinteregger put Frankfurt 4-1 up with an hour played. Robert Lewandowski scored for Bayern in the first half, extending his league record of scoring in the first 10 games this season. However, such was Frankfurt’s dominance that head coach Adi Huetter brought on a third striker in Andre Silva for defensive midfielder Gelson Fernandes with 10 minutes left. The bold move paid off as Paciencia added their fifth goal five minutes from time.
“It’s not a huge wonder (that this happened),” fumed Bayern captain Manuel Neuer. “Things had already got off to a (bad) start.” “That (the red card) didn’t make it any easier, of course, but still you can’t concede five. We’re not consistent in our defence.”
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