Bayern beaten as Bundesliga’s return is haunted by spectre of ghost games | Andy Brassell

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Mönchengladbach beat a Covid-ravaged Bayern Munich in front of empty stands as the league made a downbeat return

There had been serious doubt over whether it would happen and even though it eventually did, many pondered whether it should have. In most other contexts this game would have been something to savour rather than to fret over, with Borussia Mönchengladbach the closest Bayern Munich have had to a bogey team during their near-decade of plenty, thus providing a worthy curtain-raiser for the Bundesliga’s Rückrunde.

Perhaps there should have been some relief as Robert Lewandowski rolled Nico Elvedi before smashing home authentically, in time-honoured style, for the first Bundesliga goal of 2022. We had a storyline too, childhood Bayern fan Florian Neuhaus scoring with Gladbach’s first shot of the game and prompting an improbable comeback win for the visitors, and the merest soupçon of a title race to come.

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from Football | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/jan/10/bundesliga-covid-ghost-games-gladbach-dortmund-koln

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