Staff Reporter.
Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich needed an 82nd-minute penalty from top scorer Robert Lewandoski to snatch a 1-0 victory over visitors Augsburg on Saturday and protect their 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, winners 2-0 over Stuttgard on Friday, and on course for a record-extending 10th straight league crown.
Bayern, who suffered their first Champions League loss of the season in midweek, going down 1-0 to Villareal in the quarterfinal first-leg, were toothless for much of the game.
They were shut out by a hard-working Augsburg defence, lacked any real tempo in their game and didn’t manage a single corner kick in the first half.
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 goalkeeper made an equally good save in the 62nd, palming a deflected Joshua Kimmich shot wide as Bayern started to make some inroads.
Bayern 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.
Everything wrapped up for the moment. ? ?
The standout result so far is ___________ ? pic.twitter.com/4jVq4lyVcP
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) April 9, 2022
Meanwhile Substitute Julian Brandt netted both goals on Friday as Borussia Dortmund ground out a 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart to trim Bayern Munich’s lead in the Bundesliga, but lost three players to injuries.
Midfielders Giovanni Reyna and Mahmoud Dahoud suffered first-half injuries while defender Mats Hummels did not come out for the second half.
Reyna was injured after just 54 seconds but his replacement Brandt gave Dortmund the lead on 12 minutes, then smashed in a second after the break.