In their fifth Champions League group stage game, FC Bayern München’s hopes of finishing top in their group took a huge blow. Carlo Ancelotti’s side were defeated by Russian outfit FC Rostov 3-2, and will now need PSV Eindhoven to do them a favour in their game against Athletico Madrid tonight. The Spanish team currently sit first place in Group D by three points.
In icy conditions, the Bavarians enjoyed the majority of the ball right from the start of the match, but nevertheless found it difficult to carve out chances. The hosts threatened after nine minutes to take the lead, but full-back Juan Bernat was alert to clear the ball off the line, after Alexander Erochin’s initial shot beat goalkeeper Sven Ulreich. Ulreich was standing in for the injured Manuel Neuer. Thomas Müller, Mats Hummels, David Alaba, Joshua Kimmich and Xabi Alonso all started from the bench for Bayern.
Azmoun cancels out Costa’s opener
The first time the visitors put the Rostov goal under serious pressure was in the 22nd minute, as Holger Badstuber got his head to a Douglas Costa corner. It was the German defender’s first Champions League appearance this season, and his first time in the starting XI. After this chance, Bayern began to assert their dominance and Renato Sanches and Douglas Costa both tried their luck from distance without reward.
However, Rostov were refusing to just lie down, as Jérôme Boateng blocked a Sardar Azmoun shot just in time. The German champions’ breakthrough came just a minute after this Rostov chance, Sanches dribbled powerfully into the box and his low cross found its way to Costa, who rifled the ball into the roof of the net from ten yards (35’). However, just before half time the hosts won the ball in Bayern’s half, worked it forwards quickly and drew level through Sardar Azmoun. The Iranian still had a lot to do after receiving the ball from Poloz, fooling Boateng before slipping the ball coolly past Ulreich (44’).
Two set-pieces win it for Rostov
Bayern came out in the second half meaningfully and clearly wanted to make up for a less-than-perfect first 45 minutes. Two minutes after the break, Philipp Lahm nodded the ball just wide of the post off a Frank Ribéry cross. However, in the 49th minute Bayern suffered their second set back, as Boateng brought down Christian Noboa in the box, Dmitri Poloz converted the resulting penalty to put his team 2-1 up. The Bavarians reacted in the perfect manner, grabbing the equaliser three minutes after going behind and after saving his team in the first half with a goal-line clearance, Bernat leveled the score after being played in by Ribéry (52’).
Bayern continued to struggle to deal with Rostov’s quick counterattacks and this is how the hosts’ match-winning free kick arrived. Thiago fouled Poloz on the edge of the Bayern penalty area, and Noboa dispatched the following free-kick expertly into the back of the net (67’).
Bayern pressed for a goal until the end of the game but weren’t able to find any holes in the Russians’ defence. In the final stages, Thomas Müller, who came on for Renato Sanches with around 20 minutes to go, couldn’t get enough power on his header in the 78th minute to trouble Soslan Dzhanaev in the Rostov goal. Finally, neither Thiago nor Ribéry could salvage a point with strikes in the last minute.