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Berlin, Germany | AFP | Bayern Munich were in dampened spirits during their visit to the Munich ‘Oktoberfest’ beer festival on Saturday, after a shock Bundesliga home draw to mid-table Wolfsburg.
Bayern threw away a two-goal lead on Friday at the Allianz Arena which cost them the chance to top the Bundesliga table.
Robert Lewandowski’s penalty and an Arjen Robben first-half goal were cancelled out in the second-half by a Maximilian Arnold free-kick and Daniel Didavi’s late equaliser for Wolfsburg.
The result in Munich means league leaders Borussia Dortmund can go three-points clear of Bayern if they win at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach on Saturday evening.
Their poor performance cast a shadow for Bayern’s stars, who were all dressed up in traditional Bavarian lederhosen, at Oktoberfest.
“It was a shit day,” fumed sports director Hasan Salihamidzic about Friday’s draw.
Mats Hummels admitted the visit to one of Oktoberfest’s beer tents “wasn’t going to be as boisterous as it could have been”.
“We’re not playing the football we want to,” added the centre-back.
Germany forward Thomas Mueller was also still sore about the dropped points.
“We let it happen and threw the win away. We gave them the point wrapped up with a bow on top,” fumed Mueller.
“That was a step backwards in terms of our intensity.”
The performance dents confidence for Wednesday’s key Champions League match at Paris Saint-Germain, a fixture which could well decide Group B with Celtic and Anderlecht also in the pool.
“We were slow, without intensity, not compact enough,” complained coach Carlo Ancelotti.
“We’ll have to turn in a different display in Paris.”
With Bayern’s world-class goalkeeper Manuel Neuer out until January with a fractured foot, his replacement Sven Ulreich made a mistake when Arnold’s free-kick beat him on 56 minutes.
“I made the wrong decision admitted Ulreich.
“I wanted to steer the ball over the crossbar, it looked like the ball was going to come higher.
“I’m sorry for the guys and the team.”
In their first six league games, Bayern have now dropped five from a possible 18 points.
That is unheard of for the defending champions at this stage of the season and Bayern could finish the weekend as low as fourth in the table, depending on other results.
But Salihamidzic has vowed things will be different come Wednesday in Paris against PSG’s ‘MCN’ attack of Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Edinson Cavani.
“You don’t have to motivate anyone to play in the Champions League and we will be quite different there,” assured Bayern’s director.
“We can’t make so many mistakes.”
Hummels was also confident of Bayern turning things around.
“Football is a day-to-day business and it’s going to be a very different game. If we play well, everything will be alright,” said the German international confidently.
