The beer showers usually mark the end of the season for Bayern Munich as players and coaching staff celebrate their latest Bundesliga title by dousing each other in beer.
Club president Uli Hoeness and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge can’t have expected a beer shower after just 11 rounds of the league, but both were drenched by celebrating Borussia Dortmund fans after Paco Alcacer scored the winner in a 3-2 win over Bayern on Saturday.
Bayern fell seven points behind Dortmund, which remains the only unbeaten team in the Bundesliga.
It had been an engrossing game, with Robert Lewandowski twice giving Bayern the lead against his former team only for Marco Reus to twice drag Dortmund level. After Alcacer put Dortmund ahead, Lewandowski thought he snatched a draw in injury time with his third, but home fans’ dismay turned to joy again when the linesman raised his flag for offside.
On Sunday, Hoeness promised changes to the squad to revitalize the side for next season, through he ruled out any January transfers to bolster the team during the season.
The Bayern president defended the current squad and said suggestions that it was too old were nonsense. He pointed to the injured Corentin Tolisso, 24, and Kingsley Coman, 22, as “the two most important young players that we signed in the past years.”
Hoeness highlighted what was arguably Bayern’s best performance of the season in Dortmund.
“Anyone who saw our team in the first hour could see that we can play outstanding football,” Hoeness told Sky TV.
“The Bundesliga is fun again. One thing we can promise you - we will keep the title fight exciting to the last weekend.”
FRANKFURT’S NEW STAR
Luka Jovic continues to shine for Eintracht Frankfurt. The Serbian striker, 20, scored twice and set up the other goal as Frankfurt went fourth with a 3-0 win over Schalke on Sunday.
With nine goals so far, Jovic is the league’s top scorer, although five of those goals came in one game against Fortuna Duesseldorf. He scored eight goals last season after he joined on loan from Benfica.
“His development is absolutely sensational,” Frankfurt chairman Fredi Bobic said. “He had fallen off at Benfica, was in the second team and it felt like the third. But we remembered his youth in Belgrade, where he was outstanding.”
Frankfurt has the option of making Jovic’s loan deal from Benfica permanent for a fee of 10 million to 12 million euros ($11.5 million to $13.8 million) and Bobic expects the forward to get even better.
“If he understands that he sometimes needs to go another couple of meters, then he’s going toward world-class,” Bobic said.
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