Augsburg kicked off, rolled the ball back, and before anyone in the WWK Arena had settled, Bayern were a goal down. Luis Díaz played a back-pass to Neuer, whose heavy touch and attempted clearance struck Fellhauer in the back, and the Augsburg midfielder watched the ball roll into an empty net.
The clock read eight seconds, the fastest goal ever scored in the Bundesliga, beating the nine-second mark previously shared by Kevin Volland and Karim Bellarabi.
Neuer did not hide afterwards.
“It was a silly mistake by me. I had to bring the ball onto my left foot because two players were closing me down from the right. I should simply have made a different decision,” he told reporters.
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Only Augsburg, again
Augsburg have a habit of making this fixture their biggest night of the season. The Bavarian side were the only team to beat Bayern in the Bundesliga last season, coming from behind to win 2-1 in Munich on 24 January and ending Vincent Kompany’s 27-game unbeaten run.
They did it to the champions again on Saturday, twice leading at home before Nathaniel Brown’s 80th-minute equaliser rescued a point.
Ismael Saibari pulled Bayern level in the 55th minute, but Augsburg went back in front in the 64th. Neuer could only parry Calvin Brackelmann’s powerful strike, and Rodrigo Ribeiro tapped in the rebound.
Neuer draws the line at the second goal
The veteran goalkeeper owned the first mistake. He pushed back firmly on his role in the second.
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“I think I’ve already addressed the first situation, and I’ll take full responsibility for that one. These things happen. But I was powerless to prevent the second goal.”
“It was a powerful shot, a difficult ball that I couldn’t hold on to. I pushed it away towards the side, and then we were back on the back foot, and he simply tapped it in.”
Sporting director Max Eberl was less forgiving of the opening blunder.
“He didn’t control the ball properly, then tried to resolve the situation and took too much of a risk,” Eberl said.
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Kompany struck a different tone about his 40-year-old goalkeeper.
“Manuel is as old as I am. He knows how to handle this.”
The Belgian also pointed to four Bayern efforts ruled out for offside across the ninety minutes, though he refused to blame the officials.
“Offside is offside.”
Neuer said he still believed Bayern could rescue the game at the break.
“I first had to reflect, take a deep breath and, of course, I still hoped we could turn the game around. I think we had the chances to do so, but unfortunately, we failed to take them.”
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