BERLIN // Pep Guardiola, the manager, concedes champions Bayern Munich are suffering a German Bundesliga slump after they suffered a second shock league defeat in their 3-0 thrashing at home to Borussia Dortmund.
The reigning European champions have failed to win any of their three league matches since wrapping up the German title last month with a record seven games to spare and were humbled by Dortmund in the top of the table clash.
Goals by Borussia’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus and Jonas Hofmann condemned 10-man Bayern to their first home league defeat since October 2012.
“In the first half we didn’t get going and in the second half we dropped off our game somewhat,” said Guardiola, who won 14 titles in four years as Barcelona manager.
“That’s a problem you have when we’ve already won the league. It already happened to me at Barcelona.
“Until now we’ve been a very good team defensively. Today we didn’t show that,” added the Spaniard, who has already won three titles in his first 10 months at Bayern including the Uefa Super Cup, league and Club World Cup.
They are also in contention in the Uefa Champions League where they are defending champions and face Real Madrid in the semi-finals later this month.
This was Bayern’s second successive league defeat after crashing 1-0 at mid-table Augsburg last Saturday and being held 3-3 at home to Hoffenheim.
The defeat allowed second-placed Dortmund to trim Bayern’s lead at the top of the table to 17 points from 25 just three weeks ago.
Munich’s director of sport Matthias Sammer was more critical, especially as Bayern finished with 10 men after defender Rafinha was sent off in the dying stages for striking Mkhitaryan in the face.
“We had problems with our rhythm and our build-up play,” he said. “We didn’t concentrate enough... We never made the right decisions.”
“As a result you can’t develop any pressure. We weren’t concentrated enough at the decisive stages... but our players aren’t robots and have feelings too.
“We’re German champions, but we have to be careful and get back to playing well.”
Although Guardiola named a full-strength side, it was Bayern’s heaviest defeat in any competition since being routed 5-2 in the 2012 German Cup final by Dortmund at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
The Bundesliga giants are on course to meet again in this season’s final on May 17 with Dortmund hosting VfL Wolfsburg in Tuesday’s semis, 24 hours before Bayern entertain second-division Kaiserslautern in the other tie.
“We attacked them early, that is the only way to survive here,” Dortmund goal-scorer Reus said. “If you turn your back here briefly, it gets very difficult, that was the secret to our success.”
Having beaten Real Madrid 2-0 on Tuesday as they bowed out of the Champions League with a 3-2 aggregate defeat in the quarter-finals, Dortmund claimed their second major win in four days.
“We were very cheeky, very consistent and we could have done things a bit better here and there, but when you beat Bayern 3-0, then everything is pretty perfect,” said Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp.
“That was another highly concentrated performance.”
This was Dortmund’s second win of the season over Bayern after they beat the Bavarian giants 4-2 in the German Super Cup in July before Munich romped to a 3-0 Bundesliga win at the Westfalenstadion in November.
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Rashford 36')
Liverpool 1 (Lallana 84')
Man of the match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Results:
Men's 100m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 15 sec; 2. Rheed McCracken (AUS) 15.40; 3. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 15.75. Men's 400m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 50.56; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 50.94; 3. Henry Manni (FIN) 52.24.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
BANGLADESH SQUAD
Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Mushfiqur Rahim (wicketkeeper), Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan (vice captain), Mohammad Mithun, Sabbir Rahaman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Rubel Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Jayed (Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Haltia.ai
Started: 2023
Co-founders: Arto Bendiken and Talal Thabet
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
Match info
Liverpool 3
Hoedt (10' og), Matip (21'), Salah (45+3')
Southampton 0
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Company Profile
Founder: Omar Onsi
Launched: 2018
Employees: 35
Financing stage: Seed round ($12 million)
Investors: B&Y, Phoenician Funds, M1 Group, Shorooq Partners
Barbie
Director: Greta Gerwig
Stars: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, America Ferrera
Rating: 4/5
How to keep control of your emotions
If your investment decisions are being dictated by emotions such as fear, greed, hope, frustration and boredom, it is time for a rethink, Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at online trading platform IG, says.
Greed
Greedy investors trade beyond their means, open more positions than usual or hold on to positions too long to chase an even greater gain. “All too often, they incur a heavy loss and may even wipe out the profit already made.
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Fear
The risk of making a loss can cloud decision-making. “This can cause you to close out a position too early, or miss out on a profit by being too afraid to open a trade,” he says.
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Hope
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Tip: Set realistic goals. Be happy with what you have earned, rather than frustrated by what you could have earned.
Frustration
Traders can get annoyed when the markets have behaved in unexpected ways and generates losses or fails to deliver anticipated gains.
Tip: Accept in advance that asset price movements are completely unpredictable and you will suffer losses at some point. These can be managed, say, by attaching stops and limits to your trades.
Boredom
Too many investors buy and sell because they want something to do. They are trading as entertainment, rather than in the hope of making money. As well as making bad decisions, the extra dealing charges eat into returns.
Tip: Open an online demo account and get your thrills without risking real money.
Company profile
Name: Tabby
Founded: August 2019; platform went live in February 2020
Founder/CEO: Hosam Arab, co-founder: Daniil Barkalov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Payments
Size: 40-50 employees
Stage: Series A
Investors: Arbor Ventures, Mubadala Capital, Wamda Capital, STV, Raed Ventures, Global Founders Capital, JIMCO, Global Ventures, Venture Souq, Outliers VC, MSA Capital, HOF and AB Accelerator.
