The Bundesliga leaders were then reduced to 10 men in the 84th minute when Xabi Alonso picked up his second yellow card, six minutes after receiving his first booking. “If you can’t do that, it’s impossible to play”, added Guardiola.
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If this is what Manchester City will be getting next season, they will wonder why they waited four years to get Pep Guardiola in as their dream manager.
“I think we did enough in the second half to win it, but it’s never easy in Leverkusen”.
The end result leaves Bayern eight factors away from second-positioned Borussia Dortmund on the finish of every week to overlook for the Bavarian giants.
The hot-shot striker has scored 20 goals in 19 games, two ahead of Bayern legend Gerd Mueller at the same stage of the season when he scored the record of 40 goals in the 1971/72 campaign season.
In the eighty-third minute, Robert Lewandowski failed to capitalize on what was arguable Bayern’s best chance of the game, but pressure from the defenders forced his shot just wide of the post.
Earlier, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Bundesliga’s prime-scorer, had additionally failed to attain in Dortmund’s uninspiring goalless draw at Hertha Berlin with Jose Mourinho watching.
Fourth-placed Schalke gained ground on Hertha with a 3-0 win over Wolfsburg, goals from Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Johannes Geis and Alessandro Schopf sealing the points.
Finally, Hannover coach Thomas Schaaf was left still waiting for his first point since taking charge of the Lower Saxony club as they were beaten 1-0 at home by a Mainz side who, thanks to Jairo Samperio’s goal, moved above Wolfsburg into seventh place.
First-half goals from Christian Gentner and Daniel Didavi gave Stuttgart the lead, but Alexander Meier than pulled one back for the home side.
Frankfurt’s Szabolcs Huszti then made it 4-2 by scoring in the ninetieth minute.
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Australia goalkeeper Mitch Langerak was an unused substitute for Stuttgart, while global team-mate Mathew Leckie played a full game as Ingolstadt turned the tables on local rivals Augsburg with Marvin Matip and Moritz Hartmann cancelling out Konstantinos Stafylidis’s opener, earning the promoted side a 2-1 win.
