Bayern Munich overturned a three-goal deficit to beat Mainz 05 4-3 on the road, with four unanswered second-half goals completing one of the more unlikely reversals of the Bundesliga season. The Guardian reports that Dominik Kohr, Paul Nebel and Sheraldo Becker had all scored for Mainz before the interval, leaving Vincent Kompany's side without a shot on target as they headed into the dressing room.
The Bayern manager had made eight changes from the starting lineup that defeated Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final on Wednesday, a rotation that appeared to cost them dearly in the opening 45 minutes. The depth of the problem was clear: a Bundesliga champion, fielding a squad rotation, being dismantled by a mid-table side on their own ground.
Kompany introduced Harry Kane and Michael Olise at the break, and the effect was immediate. Nicolas Jackson reduced the deficit in the 53rd minute, and Olise added a second twenty minutes later, according to the Guardian. The precise scorers of the third and fourth goals are not detailed in the wire, but Bayern's renewed aggression in the second half proved sufficient to see the match through.
The result will be read in two ways. On one hand, it speaks to the quality available across Kompany's squad — the ability to send on two players of Kane and Olise's standing, both capable of shifting the texture of a fixture entirely. On the other, the first-half performance raised legitimate questions about the depth of concentration a heavily rotated side can maintain, even one of Bayern's experience.
With the Bundesliga title race at this stage of the calendar, dropped points in matches of this kind can prove costly. That Bayern found a way to take all three, whatever the manner of the first half, will matter more than the manner of the concessions. The German Cup campaign continues alongside league commitments, and Kompany will need to manage both without further performances of this kind becoming a pattern.