Augsburg's goalkeeper Finn Dahmen in action during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Bayern Munich and FC Augsburg in Munich, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Peter Kneffel/dpa via AP)
BERLIN (AP) — The best team in Germany is not necessarily the best in Bavaria.
Bayern Munich slumped to its first Bundesliga defeat of the season by 2-1 at home to Bavarian rival Augsburg on Saturday, when Bayern star Michael Olise struck the crossbar with the last kick of the game.
It’s the first time Bayern has failed to gather at least a point in the league since March 8 in a 3-2 defeat at home to Bochum.
“I wouldn’t say the defeat was absolutely deserved. That might be too much but it also wouldn’t have been deserved if we had won,” Bayern midfielder Joshua Kimmich said. “So in a way, it’s acceptable, even though it’s extremely annoying for us to have lost a Bundesliga match. The crucial thing will be our reaction to it.”
Augsburg ended Bayern’s record 53-game unbeaten run in the Bundesliga in April 2014, and on Saturday the same club also ended Bayern’s next longest unbeaten run at 27 games.
With 50 points and a goal difference of plus-57, Bayern had already made the best ever start to the Bundesliga after 18 rounds.
Augsburg, only three points from the relegation zone before the match, hadn’t won a game since early December. And Manuel Baum’s team had to come from behind in Munich after Hiroki Ito opened the scoring with a header to Olise’s corner in the 23rd minute.
“We spoke all week about we had to believe in ourselves because no one else did, perhaps justifiably so,” Augsburg midfielder Robin Fellhauer said. “We thought of a plan and it actually worked. We wanted to be well positioned, not allow much, have a bit of luck now and then, and then keep making moves forward.”
Bayern missed further good chances and the first half ended with Fellhauer striking the crossbar for Augsburg.
The visitors pushed hard for an equalizer in the second half and Arthur Chaves duly got it with the back of his head to a corner that Bayern goalkeeper Jonas Urbig failed to reach in the 75th.
Han-Noah Massengo scored what proved to be the winner six minutes later when Dimitrios Giannoulis surged down the left and crossed into the middle to pick him out.
“Unbelievable. There’s still a bit of disbelief in the locker room because nobody really knows what just happened and that we actually did it,” Fellhauer said.
Dortmund chips at Bayern’s lead
Borussia Dortmund capitalized on Bayern’s loss with a 3-0 win at Union Berlin that cut the leader’s comfortable advantage to eight points with 15 rounds remaining.
Emre Can tucked away an early penalty, Nico Schlotterbech headed the second goal from a corner early in the second half, and Maximilian Beier sealed the win late with a low shot inside the far post.
Another three conceded
Eintracht Frankfurt’s habit of conceding three goals continued in a 3-1 loss at home to high-flying Hoffenheim. Frankfurt, which fired coach Dino Toppmöller last weekend, has conceded three goals in all five games it has played in 2026.
Vázquez off the mark
Former Real Madrid star Lucas Vázquez scored his first goal for Leverkusen to prevail 1-0 over Werder Bremen. It snapped Leverkusen’s three-game losing streak across all competitions.
Leipzig won at relegation-threatened Heidenheim 3-0, and Mainz’s improvement under new coach Urs Fischer continued in beating Wolfsburg 3-1.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
By CIARÁN FAHEY
AP Sports Writer
This post was last modified on 01/24/2026 12:29 pm