English Woman's Journal - Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot

Marmoush’s strike cued wild scenes in Frankfurt, who ensure Bayern go into the international break ahead of RB Leipzig only on goal difference with the Red Bull outfit winning 1-0 at Heidenheim earlier on Sunday.

Bayern had been closing out a 3-2 win but Marmoush raced clear in the fourth of six additional minutes and the 25-year-old punished slack Bayern defending to settle a six-goal thriller.

Frankfurt are now on 13 points, only a point behind the joint-leaders, and stretch their unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions under coach Dino Toppmoeller.

Bayern central defender Min-Jae Kim scored the opener after Thomas Mueller showed great awareness to roll the ball back to the Korean from a corner, allowing the defender to fire into the roof of the net.

It was only Kim’s second goal as a Bayern player, but Bayern were undone by Frankfurt’s first meaningful attack of the game, coming on the counter-attack and completely against the run of play.

Ansgar Knauff made it, sliding the ball through Aleksandar Pavlovic’s legs and finding Marmoush, whose first touch got him away from the chasing Joshua Kimmich, he fired the ball past Manuel Neuer with his second.

Thirteen minutes later, Frankfurt had flipped the game on its head to move into a 2-1 lead. Marmoush turned provider, leading another breakaway and picking out Hugo Ekitike, with the Frenchman doing the rest with a clinical finish.

Marmoush is the Bundesliga’s top scorer this season with eight goals in six games, three more than Bayern’s Harry Kane.

- Olise's strong start -

But Frankfurt’s lead lasted only three minutes. Dayot Upamecano stabbed the ball in from close range after Serge Gnabry had stretched the Frankfurt defence.

This absorbing contest lurched back Bayern’s way in the 53rd minute when Michael Olise continued his fine start to life in Germany.

The London-born Frenchman found the bottom corner from the edge of the box after Kane had flicked Raphael Gueirrero's pass into Olise’s path, before Marmoush ensured a share of the points.

Earlier in the day, Leipzig had out their noses in front at the top of the table with victory in Heidenheim. Ikoma Openda scored the game's only goal in the second half and the Belgian spoke of the team’s togetherness after a fourth straight clean sheet in the league.

"We are really strong together. Our objective is to be strong, to be like a family, like a team, and to show it on the pitch. That’s what we’ve shown since the start of the season," Openda told DAZN.

Heidenheim came into the game in eighth place after three wins in their opening six games, and frustrated Leipzig for long periods in the first half.

It was only at the end of the half that Heidenheim goalkeeper Kevin Mueller was called into action to deny Xavi Simons, who breached the hosts’ defence but failed to make a proper connection, with the on-rushing Mueller smothering.

But Leipzig found another gear just before the hour mark, slicing through the Heidenheim defence.

The 19-year-old Norwegian Antonio Nusa was the goal’s architect, spotting Openda’s run with a perfectly-weighted pass, with Openda taking it in his stride, firing in at the near post, although there were questions over Mueller's positioning.

"It was a good goal for the team at a difficult moment in the game,"Openda added. "We were able to take back control of the game after that."

Openda, who also scored the winner when these teams met in April, struck the post a couple of minutes from time, with Leipzig surviving some late Heidenheim pressure to secure all the points.

M.Stevenson--EWJ