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FOOTBALL

Leverkusen end jinx to snap Bayern streak

Bayer Leverkusen earned a shock 2-1 win at Bayern Munich on Sunday to claim their first win in Munich for 23 years, as the Bundesliga leaders' record winning streak came to an abrupt end.

Leverkusen end jinx to snap Bayern streak
Photo: DPA

Having set a German league record last weekend with their eighth straight win since the start of the season, Bayern were left stunned as defender Jerome Boateng scored a late own goal to give Leverkusen the three points.

Despite the defeat, Bayern still enjoy a four-point lead at the top of the table, while Leverkusen are fifth.

“The defeat will not knock us of course, but we must learn the lessons from it,” insisted Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes. “We have to maintain the same pace over the 90 minutes which we showed in the second-half.”

The visitors took the lead when Leverkusen captain Simon Rolfes found Andre Schürrle on the wing, who threaded his pass through the Munich defence for striker Stefan Kießling to tap in on 42 minutes.

Bayern levelled on 77 minutes thanks to a header from striker Mario Mandzukic, but Leverkusen were not be denied their first win in Munich since October 1989.

Boateng managed to get his head in the way as Leverkusen’s Sidney Sam headed towards goal, but the ball only flew into the top left-hand corner and past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer on 86 minutes.

There was also drama in Hannover as Borussia Mönchengladbach came from 2-0 down to score three goals in nine minutes to enjoy a 3-2 win and claim only

their third league victory of the season to go ninth with Hannover tenth.

Earlier, VfB Stuttgart striker Vedad Ibisevic headed a late winner to seal his team’s 2-1 home victory over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Ex-Germany midfielder Christian Gentner played a big part in Stuttgart’s win, which lifts them up to eighth, after he scored the opener in the sixth minute, then provided the final cross for Ibisevic’s 84th-minute header.

Frankfurt equalised when captain Alexander Meier curled the ball inside the far post on 67 minutes before Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ibisevic hit his fifth goal of the season to leave Frankfurt third in the league.

On Saturday, defending champions Borussia Dortmund and Schalke had to dig deep as they returned to domestic action still in the glow of their midweek Champions League triumphs.

After Borussia shocked Real Madrid 2-1 in Dortmund on Wednesday, the same night Schalke enjoyed a 2-0 win at Arsenal, the pair both needed second-half goals to win their respective Bundesliga games.

Dortmund beat Freiburg 2-0 in heavy snow as centre-back Neven Subotic got the breakthrough the defending champions needed with a 54th-minute header.

Germany midfielder Mario Götze slotted home the second on 83 minutes to keep Dortmund fourth.

Schalke also had to labour for their three points in Gelsenkirchen as Peru striker Jefferson Farfan hit the only goal of the game against Nuremberg in the 77th-minute to put the Royal Blues second in the league.

VfL Wolfsburg, who parted company with coach Felix Magath on Thursday, picked up only their second win of the season with a 4-1 victory at 10-man Fortuna Düsseldorf to lift themselves off the bottom and up into 16th in the table.

Mainz are up to sixth after Hungary striker Adam Szalai scored a hat-trick against Hoffenheim. Having opened his account in the 21st minute, he doubled his team’s tally with a second on 46 and wrapped up his hat-trick with a 64th-minute header to seal the 3-0 victory.

AFP/bk

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RACISM

VIDEO: Spain’s La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

Spain's La Liga on Monday said it was reviewing a video of a child making racist insults towards Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during the 2-2 draw with Valencia at the weekend.

VIDEO: Spain's La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

“We’re in the process of studying and analysing the facts from a legal standpoint to see what we can and should do,” La Liga sources said.

In a video published by a journalist for ESPN Brasil, and picked up by Spanish media, a boy sitting in a woman’s lap can be heard calling Vinicius a “monkey”.

The Brazilian scored twice for Madrid as his team recovered from two goals down at Mestalla on Saturday.

Vinicius raised his fist in a “Black Power” salute after the first of his two goals at a ground where he was racially abused last season. Valencia subsequently banned three people from the stadium for life.

The 23-year-old has become a symbol of the fight against discrimination in Spanish football after suffering racist abuse on many occasions, and he was jeered repeatedly by home supporters on Saturday.

Jude Bellingham was sent off after the final whistle against Valencia for protesting after the referee blew the final whistle right before the England midfielder headed home what he thought was the winning goal.

READ ALSO: Football star Vinicius highlights racist behaviour from Spanish fans

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