'It looks really stupid' - Borussia Monchengladbach star apologises for red card challenge on Luis Diaz in Bayern Munich defeat

Bayern started a second-string backline for their game against Borussia Monchengladbach, with the likes of Sacha Boey, Tom Bischof and Kim Min-jae getting the nod ahead of regulars such as Jonathan Tah and Konrad Laimer. The visitors headed into this fixture as the table-toppers after seven wins in as many league games, while the hosts were hoping for their first win this season to get themselves up and running. 

It was a pretty drab first half, despite Bayern dominating possession and creating chances at will. Borussia Monchengladbach kept the visitors' in check with valiant defending and had their goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas to thank for helping the team keep a clean sheet in the first half. 

The second half, though, was a completely different story. Rejuvenated by the introductions of Raphael Guerreiro and young sensation Lennart Karl – who is set to extend his contract on his 18th birthday – the Bavarian giants scored thrice in the space of 17 second half minutes to put the game beyond any doubt. Substitute Guerreiro opened the scoring in the 64th minute before Michael Olise doubled the lead five minutes later. Karl, who became Bayern's youngest goal scorer in the Champions League last week, scored his first-ever goal in the top-flight to put the game to bed with less than 10 minutes in the 90 remaining. 

Bayern registered 23 shot attempts, of which 13 were on target. On the other hand, their opponents managed just one shot, which came through a Kevin Stoger penalty in the second half. Stoger's effort hit the post. 

Bayern, who have scored as many as 47 goals this season, struggled to break the deadlock for over an hour. Although they were at their clinical best in the second half, they were not at their usual best overall. It can be said that Bayern enjoying a numerical advantage for over 71 minutes of the game played a big role in helping them continue their winning run. 

In the 18th minute, Castrop made a rash challenge on Luis Diaz, which prompted the referee to show him a yellow card. However, after the intervention of VAR, the decision was overturned and Castrop was shown a direct red card instead, leaving Monchengladbach handicapped with a man down. 

Speaking to BILD after the game, Castrop said: "The penalty is fine. If you look at the freeze-frame, the scene looks really stupid. Luckily, I didn't hit him that hard. I'm sorry. We had planned to make sure no one would retreat in a one-on-one, but it was unfortunate, of course."

It was a rare sight to see Harry Kane kept off the scoresheet. The prolific Englishman has been in blistering form this season, scoring 20 goals in just 13 appearances for Bayern Munich. The last time he failed to find the net was on August 30 against Augsburg – though he still registered two assists that day. Since then, Kane had scored in nine consecutive matches, a streak that spanned 56 days.

Meanwhile, Bayern maintained their spotless streak, making it 13 wins out of 13 since the start of the 2025-26 season. They became only the second team in the history of Europe's big five leagues to start a season with 13 consecutive victories across all competitions, AC Milan doing it first in the 1992-93 season. Three more wins in their next three Bundesliga games, and it will have broken the Bundesliga record for the most successive wins at the start of the season – set by Bayern themselves in the 2015-16 season under Pep Guardiola. 

The Bavarians will be the favourites to book their place in the next round of the DFB-Pokal when they meet Koln in the second round of the domestic cup competition on Wednesday. Then, they will host an in-form Bayer Leverkusen team on Saturday, before visiting Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes three days later.