Final score:-
Hertha Berlin 2-1 Bayern Munich
(Andriy Voronin 38′, 77’/ Miroslav Klose 61′)
Hertha Berlin went to the top of the German Bundesliga on Saturday night when they beat defending champions Bayern Munich 2-1 at the Olympic Stadium. The win was Hertha’s first over Bayern since December 2001, when they won by the same scoreline at home.
Hertha were third before this week’s round of games began, but Hoffenheim’s shock 1-4 loss to Leverkusen gave them a chance to go the top, and Lucien Favre’s side seized the opportunity with both hands.
Ze Roberto stopped Hungarian midfielder Pal Dardai’s volley on the line in the 30th minute, but Bayern fell behind seven minutes later. Voronin took advantage of some slack defending from Christian Lell to head home from Patrick Ebert’s long ball.
Hertha keeper Jaroslav Drobny blocked shots from Lucio and Bastian Schweinsteiger, but could not stop Klose from scoring the equaliser for Bayern in the 61st minute.
Both Schweinsteiger and American forward Landon Donovan, who had come on as a first half substitute for the injured Luca Toni, were guilty of glaring misses in the 68th and 71st minutes respectively.
Voronin broke Bayern hearts and sent the 74,000 capacity stadium into delight when he collected Rafael’s defence splitting pass in the 77th minute and fired past Michael Rensing.
Bayern general manager Uli Hoeneß was certainly not a happy man after his young brother Dieter ( Hertha Berlin general manager) got one over him. And he had enough reason to rage at his players, as the stats below will tell you.
Hertha had only three shots on goal, and managed to score twice. The gamecast here tells you that Drobny was certainly the busier keeper. Only Maximilian Nicu and goal scorer Voronin managed to manufacture opportunities in the Bayern box. In comparison to that as many as seven Bayern players ( Donovan, Toni, Klose, Lucio, Schweinsteiger,Demichelis and Borowski) had efforts in the Hertha box.
Bayern enjoyed a whopping 69% of possession, and had six corners compared to Hertha’s two.
Bayern had a total of eighteen shots, in comparison to Hertha’s eight.
After the defeat, Bayern club chairman Franz Beckenbauer wrote in the Bild newspaper that he no longer considers them as favourites for the title.