Bayern Munich held to a 2-2 draw at Augsburg after twice surrendering the lead

Bayern Munich's unbeaten start to the season survived a scare at the WWK Arena, but only after Augsburg twice took the lead in a 2-2 draw that denied the champions a fifth straight league win. Robin Fellhauer and Rodrigo Ribeiro scored for the hosts; Ismael Saibari and Nathaniel Brown, both set up by Harry Kane, dragged Bayern level each time.

Fellhauer's first-minute strike sets the tone

Augsburg could not have asked for a quicker start. Robin Fellhauer put the hosts ahead in the opening minute, catching Bayern cold before the visitors had settled into the game at all. It took until the 55th minute for Bayern to respond, Ismael Saibari converting a Harry Kane assist to make it 1-1 — only for Rodrigo Ribeiro to restore Augsburg's lead nine minutes later, in the 64th.

Bayern needed a second rescue act, and got one with ten minutes left. Nathaniel Brown scored in the 80th minute, Kane turning provider again, to make it 2-2 and salvage a point the champions would have been disappointed not to find a winner for given how the afternoon had gone against them.

How the four goals came

Three bookings, all for the hosts

• 42' — Chrislain Matsima (Augsburg), yellow
• 43' — Rodrigo Ribeiro (Augsburg), yellow
• 62' — Hennes Behrens (Augsburg), yellow

A different kind of Bayern result

Bayern had arrived at the WWK Arena off the back of a near-perfect run: a Super Cup win over Dortmund, a 5-1 opening-day rout of VfB Stuttgart, a 0-0 draw at Schalke, a 5-0 Champions League win over Bodø/Glimt, a 2-1 win at Elversberg and a 7-0 demolition of Union Berlin — five wins and a draw from their last six games across competitions, with 19 goals scored and only 2 conceded. None of those opponents had taken anything off Vincent Kompany's side the way Augsburg did on Saturday, twice getting in front of a team that had barely been troubled all season.

That unbeaten record stays intact, but the manner of it changes the story. Bayern's attack found a way through twice, but their defence — so miserly through four matchdays, with only two goals conceded — looked far more vulnerable than at any point so far this season, and the champions needed two separate contributions from Kane just to avoid defeat.

Augsburg bounce back from a loss at Werder Bremen

For Augsburg, the point ends a run that had started to turn against them. After opening the season with wins over Schalke and Eintracht Frankfurt and a draw with Bayer Leverkusen, Manuel Baum's side had lost 2-3 away at Werder Bremen on matchday 4, blowing a two-goal lead in the process. Taking a point off the champions — and leading for long stretches of the game to do it — was exactly the response a team coming off that kind of defeat needed.

Line-ups

• FC Augsburg (3-4-2-1): Finn Dahmen — Calvin Brackelmann, Chrislain Matsima, Youngwoo Seol — Hennes Behrens, Juma Bah, Han-Noah Massengo, Robin Fellhauer — Arijon Ibrahimović, Fabian Rieder — Rodrigo Ribeiro
• Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Manuel Neuer — Dayot Upamecano, Jonathan Tah, Alphonso Davies, Josip Stanišić — Joshua Kimmich, Aleksandar Pavlović — Ismael Saibari, Harry Kane, Luis Díaz — Michael Olise

What the result means

Bayern had gone into the weekend 2nd on 10 points from four games, two behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, who had already moved to 13 points on Friday night with a 2-2 draw of their own at home to Werder Bremen. The point at Augsburg takes Bayern to 11 — still two adrift of Dortmund, with the rest of the round still to be completed elsewhere. Augsburg, who had entered matchday 5 in 5th on 7 points, move to 8 and will have to wait on the rest of the weekend's results to see exactly where that leaves them, but a point against the champions, taken from in front for most of the afternoon, is a result the WWK Arena will be happy with regardless of where it lands them in the table.

What's next

Bayern remain unbeaten in the league this season but have now dropped points for the first time, a reminder that the title race is unlikely to be the one-horse procession some of their earlier scorelines suggested. Augsburg, for their part, have now taken something off both Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich inside five rounds — evidence that Thorup's side can compete with the division's bigger clubs even when they cannot beat them outright.