Bayern Munich is no stranger to putting up a fight even with a man disadvantage. And that is how the Bavarians played in its Bundesliga match on Saturday at Bayer Leverkusen following a straight red to Chelsea loanee Nicolas Jackson late in the first half — scoring first a disallowed goal before Luis Díaz finally buried an equalizer in the 69th minute.
However…that was where Bayern’s luck ended.
Not too long after, Díaz was booked and escaped a straight red himself after putting a scary challenge resulted
with his boot on the head of Leverkusen goal-scorer Aleix García. Then with under ten minutes to go, Díaz broke free in the box and was met by a challenge from on-rushing goalkeeper Janis Blaswich. Díaz went down, and there was little hesitation before the ref produced a second yellow card, this one for diving — sending the Colombian winger off and infuriating the Bayern side.
There was contact but it appears that Díaz was judged to have sought it out, trailing his leg in an attempt to buy a penalty. The former Liverpool player looked stunned at the decision.
The match ended with more dramatics. A razor-tight offside chopped off a Leverkusen goal and Die Werkself produced more near-certain chances to score that somehow, nine-man Bayern evaded like a cat with nine lives. After the dust settled, the scoreline read 1-1.
The Bavarians will be happy just to get out of this scrap with a point and move on, while Leverkusen should have burgeoning confidence heading into the second leg of its Champions League Round of 16 tilt vs. Arsenal.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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