For once, Robert Lewandowski did not score a goal, as the Poland star’s club-record scoring streak for Bayern Munich ended at 19 consecutive games on Friday when he failed to get a goal their 3-1 win against SpVgg Greuther Furth in the Bundesliga.
Lewandowski, who hit the crossbar in the 40th minute, also missed out on equaling Gerd Muller’s record of scoring in 16 Bundesliga games in a row.
Lewandowski’s 19-game run includes matches in the league, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League going back to a 3-3 draw against DSC Arminia Bielefeld on Feb. 15.
Photo: Reuters
Furth, who had not won any of their opening five Bundesliga games since promotion, made a reasonable start, but were caught cold when Thomas Muller opened the scoring in the 10th minute.
Canadian international Alphonso Davies set off on a counterattack down the left wing and his cross took a kind deflection for Muller to dispatch the ball in off the right post from outside the penalty area.
Joshua Kimmich’s second goal for Bayern in the 31st minute was similar, this time Leroy Sane providing the cross.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Furth’s defenders allowed the Bayern players too much space — although not enough for Lewandowski.
The home team were given a lifeline in the 48th minute when Benjamin Pavard was sent off for a bad challenge on midfielder Julian Green, who would have been through on goal.
However, Bayern still had enough offensive power to extend their lead in the 68th minute, when Sebastian Griesbeck scored an own-goal under pressure from Lewandowski, who looked disappointed not to have netted himself.
Cedric Itten got a consolation goal for Furth in the 87th minute.
Bayern consolidated top spot after taking the league lead with a 7-0 rout of another promoted team, VfL Bochum, last weekend.
“We’re happy with how it’s going, but we mustn’t lose touch — it’s about always taking the next step. That’s the most fun, to keep improving,” Muller said after scoring his second league goal of the season. “In the end it’s a sport based on results ... especially in Germany, especially for us, the results are going our way. So nobody has anything to complain about, but we mustn’t lose touch with our own development.”
LA LIGA
AP, MADRID
The troubles for Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman keep piling up on Friday after he received a two-match ban for complaining at the end of Barcelona’s 0-0 draw against Cadiz in La Liga the day before.
The result extended Barcelona’s winless streak to three matches and increased the pressure on Koeman.
Koeman was sent off deep into stoppage-time for complaints directed at the fourth official.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation ruled that this merited a tougher two-game suspension than the automatic one-game ban for a red card.
Koeman will miss Barcelona’s home match against Levante UD in La Liga today, as well as the team’s visit to defending champions Atletico Madrid next weekend.
One of the reasons that upset the Dutch coach was the sending off of midfielder Frenkie de Jong after a second yellow card earlier in the match.
Barcelona argued that De Jong touched the ball before contacting his opponent and should not have been booked.
“In this country, they send you off for nothing,” Koeman said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
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