Xabi Alonso made his Bayern Munich debut, while Robert Lewandowski scored his first goal for the club as the defending champions drew 1-1 at Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Alonso was handed his first start at Bayern a day after completing his transfer from Real Madrid and he watched ex-Borussia Dortmund striker Lewandowski open the scoring after 10 minutes in Gelsenkirchen.
Shortly before being substituted, the Spanish midfielder was involved when Schalke equalized on 62 minutes. Alonso attempted to execute a sliding goal-line clearance, only to see the ball bounce into the net off Benedikt Hoewedes’ arm.
Despite Bayern’s protests, the goal stood and the home team comfortably held on to end a run of seven defeats in a row against the Bavarians.
The result meant that Bayer 04 Leverkusen sit top of the Bundesliga after Roger Schmidt’s side came from behind twice to beat Hertha BSC 4-2 earlier on Saturday.
Meanwhile, SC Paderborn 07 earned their first ever win in the Bundesliga with an excellent 3-0 victory at Hamburg SV.
Cologne also got their first victory since returning to the top flight by beating VfB Stuttgart 2-0 thanks to first-half goals from forwards Yuya Osako and Anthony Ujah.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim were unable to keep pace with Leverkusen after they were pegged back in a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen, while VfL Wolfsburg are still without a win after being held to a 2-2 draw by visitors Eintracht Frankfurt.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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