German giants Bayern Munich slumped to a humiliating 5-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt Saturday to heap the pressure on coach Niko Kovac after a stuttering start to its Bundesliga title defense.
An early red card for Jerome Boateng presaged Bayern’s heaviest league loss in over a decade, leaving Kovac’s men fourth in the standings and four points behind leader Borussia Moenchengladbach, 2-1 winners at Bayer Leverkusen.
Boateng was sent off on nine minutes after a VAR review for upending Goncalo Paciencia as the last line of defense and it was not long before Frankfurt’s numerical advantage proved decisive.
Filip Kostic capitalized on a defensive error for the opener with Djibril Sow adding a second after Kostic’s shot was deflected to him at the far post.
The ever dangerous Robert Lewandowski continued his fine run for Bayern as he beat three men before shooting home from the edge of the penalty area.
It extends his Bundesliga record to scoring in his 10th successive game, but it was as good as it got for his side.
Any hopes of a visitor fightback faded when David Abraham converted a Danny Da Costa cross soon after the restart, with Martin Hinteregger heading a fourth on the hour.
Paciencia completed the rout off an Andre Silva pass to send the 48,000 home crowd home with a famous victory to savor.
For Bayern it was a poor start to a testing series of fixtures, with the visit of Olympiakos in the Champions League in midweek before a heavyweight showdown with arch-rival Borussia Dortmund next Saturday.
READ: Freiburg’s $85 million stadium with a twist
READ: Bayern pays tribute to former chairman who rebuilt club after WWII
Dortmund warmed up for that clash with a 3-0 home win over Wolfsburg to climb into second spot with Raphael Guerreiro, Thorgan Hazard and Mario Goetze on target in a fine win.
RB Leipzig are up to third with an 8-0 thrashing of Main with the Germany striker Timo Werner scoring a hat-trick.
Barca beaten
The shocks did not end in Germany with La Liga defending champion Barcelona suffering a 3-1 defeat to Levante in the City of Valencia stadium.
Barcelona went into the match off the back of seven straight wins in all competitions, coinciding with the return after injury of talisman Lionel Messi.
He converted a first-half penalty for his sixth goal in five games to put Barca ahead, but Levante staged an incredible second half fightback.
The home scoring started just after the hour through Jose Campana before Borjal Mayoral and Nemanja Radoja added further goals in a seven-minute spell to stun the illustrious visitor.
Ernesto Valverde’s men also suffered a blow with an injury to Luis Suarez, who is a doubt for Tuesday’s Champions League game at home to Slavia Prague, but at least held its lead at the top of La Liga on goal difference when Real Madrid was held goalless at home by Real Betis in the later kick.
Shocks avoided just
Defending English Premier League champion Manchester City and league leader Liverpool also came close to suffering upsets Saturday before late goals secured 2-1 victories for both sides.
Southampton went to Manchester City off the back of a record 9-0 loss to Leicester City and a midweek English League Cup defeat to Pep Guardiola’s men in the same stadium.
But James Ward Prowse’s early goal at the Etihad saw the heavy underdog lead into the second half with dogged defense.
But Sergio Aguero leveled for City 20 minutes from time before defender Kyle Walker scored a rare goal in the 86th minute to condemn Southampton to another defeat.
Liverpool, looking to preserve its six-point lead over City, trailed to a first half goal from Egyptian midfielder Trezeguet at Villa Park, but hit back in typical style late in the match.
Andrew Robertson equalized with four minutes left before Senegal striker Sadio Mane’s grabbed a stoppage-time winner.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have won 10 of 11 league games from the start of the season ahead of a showdown with Manchester City next weekend at Anfield.
Earlier Saturday, Manchester United’s stuttering start to the season continued as a Josh King strike on the stroke of halftime condemned Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men to a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
Three straight away wins in all competitions had boosted United going into the match, but familiar failings were apparent again on the south coast.
