BERLIN — Injury-hit Augsburg ended Bayern Munich’s record 53-game unbeaten run in the Bundesliga with a 1-0 victory Saturday.
Sascha Moelders scored in the 31st minute for Augsburg to hand Bayern its first league loss since a 2-1 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Oct. 28, 2012.
“That’s football, that’s sport,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. “You can’t always win. There was going to be a loss sooner or later.”
It was Augsburg’s first victory over its larger Bavarian rival after five league and three German Cup defeats, and Bayern’s third successive game without a win in all competitions since it won the Bundesliga title with seven games to spare.
Guardiola’s team drew 3-3 against Hoffenheim last weekend and then 1-1 at Manchester United in the Champions league quarterfinal first leg on Tuesday.
With one eye on next Wednesday’s return leg, the Spaniard fielded a weakened side in Augsburg, with seven changes to the side that lined up in Manchester.
Arjen Robben, Franck Ribery and Philipp Lahm were left out of the squad, while David Alaba, Jerome Boateng, Mario Goetze, Dante and Thomas Mueller all started on the bench.
“The Bundesliga is over for us. Our target is the Champions League,” Guardiola said in the run-up to the game, before opting to give Mitchel Weiser, Pierre-Emil Hojbjerg and Ylli Sallahi their starting debuts.
A mistake from Weiser led to the goal. The Bayern midfielder was easily dispossessed by Daniel Baier, who set Moelders through on goal in front of Manuel Neuer. The Augsburg striker fired hard and high to give the Bayern No. 1 little chance.
“The lead was super for us. We could be more compact and rely on the counterattack then,” said Augsburg coach Markus Weinzierl, who missed three injured regulars and suspended top-scorer Andre Hahn. “It all went very well.”
“We accept it and now we have to prepare as quickly as possible for the Manchester game,” Guardiola said. “Next Wednesday we have a final. It’s about life or death.”
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