Domestic misery follows international bliss - again (News Feature)

By Peter Auf der Heyde Nov 7, 2010, 10:42 GMT

Berlin - Bayern Munich are sitting comfortably at the top of their Champions League group, but in the domestic league things are far from rosy.

On Saturday the German champions completely outplayed Borussia Moenchengladbach in their first half of their Bundesliga game, but missed a number of chances, including a penalty that Bastian Schweinsteiger put against the post.

Bayern then gave away a 2-1 half-time advantage and allowed the home side a 3-2 lead. Although captain Philipp Lahm found a late equalizer for the Bavarian team, players and their coach Louis van Gaal felt the point they took home was not enough.

'I was very disappointed and also a little bit angry with my players. We were so dominant and played the best first half of the season,' van Gaal said.

The draw leaves them in ninth place with 16 points from their 11 matches - nine points behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, who could move 12 points ahead of the 22-times German champions if they win at Hanover 96 on Sunday.

'In our present situation a draw is of course dramatic, especially if one sees how easy we could have won the game,' World Cup top scorer Thomas Mueller said.

The game against Borussia Moenchengladbach, who remained last in the Bundesliga after the draw, once again confirmed Bayern's difficulty in returning to domestic normality after their international appearance.

In the four Bundesliga games after playing in the Champions League Bayern have picked up just three points out of 12, dropping nine points in their draws against Cologne, SV Hamburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach and the defeat against Borussia Dortmund.

Ironically the nine points dropped is exactly what they were trailing Dortmund by after their game against Moenchengladbach.

Their Champions League performances have been very different.

The 12 points they have secured in their four Champions League matches with victories against Basle, Roma and Cluj (twice) are a German record as never before has a German club won its opening four matches in the lucrative group phase of the Champions League.

But Bayern officials will be worried that the team seems unable to take their fine European form into their next Bundesliga match and especially the strikers seem to find it much more difficult scoring in the Bundesliga than in the Champions League.

In the Champions League Bayern have found the back of the net 11 times in their four matches, while the four games in the Bundesliga immediately following Champions League action have wielded just three goals - all of them on Saturday.

Champions League hat-trick hero Mario Gomez, who has scored four times in the four European matches, said there had been some similarities in the Bundesliga match to the game in Cluj.

'Against Cluj we were simply not in the game at the start of the second half, but we were not punished. We told ourselves that we did not want to make the same mistake again, but we did and we conceded two goals as a result.'

Notwithstanding the precarious domestic situation, van Gaal, who last year took Bayern to the domestic double and into the Champions League final, is still optimistic. 'The championship will be decided in May and not in November,' he said.

Bayern's honorary president Franz Beckenbauer, is possibly more realistic and told a German television station that if things did not improve: 'Then, for a change, another club will be champions.'

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