Bayern leave it late to beat St Pauli, Dortmund win in Leverkusen

Luis Díaz and Nicolas Jackson netted in stoppage time on Saturday to give a lacklustre Bayern Munich a 3-1 Bundesliga home win over St Pauli - the Hamburg-based side's ninth league loss in a row.

The second-bottom visitors took an early lead through Andréas Hountondji but Raphael Guerreiro levelled for Bayern just before the break. The second half was a damp squib until Colombia's Luis Díaz headed home with his shoulder and substitute Jackson evaded the offside trap.

Bayern moved two further points at the top of the table, now eight points clear of RB Leipzig who on Friday were held 0-0 at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

"It wasn’t easy today. We’ve extended our lead by two points. Such victories are part of a season, it gives us confidence. A huge compliment to the lads, we always carry on," Bayern coach Vincent Kompany said.

The Bavarians lost 3-1 at Arsenal in the Champions League in midweek for their first defeat of the season and had to come from 2-0 down to beat 6-2 Freiburg last weekend. They previously lost their 100% record this term with a 2-2 draw at Union Berlin.

"We've had a bit of a downer ... but generally it is going well for us," captain Manuel Neuer told Sky TV. "We believed that we could score right into the final few minutes. We deserved to win."

Dortmund and Hoffenheim win

Borussia Dortmund rose to third one point behind Leipzig with an important 2-1 victory from Anselmino and Karim Adeyemi at top-four rivals Bayer Leverkusen.

Leverkusen are another two points back, tied with Hoffenheim who beat lowly Augsburg 3-0 thanks to Bazoumana Toure, Wouter Burger and a Cédric Zesiger own goal. Visiting coach Sandro Wagner's 38th birthday was ruined by a fourth league defeat in five.

Werder Bremen drew 1-1 with Cologne at home, with Said El Mala netting a stoppage time equalizer for the visitors. Heidenheim climbed off the bottom with a late 2-1 win at Union from Stefan Schimmer in the 90th and Jan Schöppner deep into stoppage time.

Beaten for pace

Bayern coach Vincent Kompany made four changes from the Arsenal defeat as Tom Bischof, Luis Díaz, Guerreiro und Kim Min Jae came into the starting line-up.

Bayern gave the ball away and South Korea defender Kim was beaten for pace by Hountondji for St Pauli's opener as the champions went behind for the fourth straight game.

Neuer, who is now joint second in the Bundesliga appearance list for goalkeepers with 534, has been shaky of late and was beaten at his near post.

Bayern teenager Lennart Karl hit the woodwork with a curling effort and Bischof cracked the crossbar, but otherwise the hosts laboured to get back into the game in the first half.

They eventually equalized after good work from Díaz while on the floor set up Guerreiro's emphatic finish on 44 minutes.

The second period was cagey amid a flurry of substitutions. Harry Kane struck the frame of the goal, but Louis Oppie had a great chance for the away side before the late drama.

A defeat at champions Bayern is unlikely to be the result that costs St Pauli coach Alexander Blessin his job, but the horror run has him under severe pressure despite taking the lead.

Mainz could knock his side down to the bottom with at least a point at Freiburg on Sunday.

Dortmund back to winning ways

Coming off two league draws, Dortmund returned to winning ways at the 2024 champions Leverkusen in a cagey affair where it took a dead ball situation to open the scoring when Chelsea loanee Anselmino rose highest to nod in Daniel Svensson's free-kick in the 41st.

Adeyemi headed the second off substitute Fabio Silva in the 65th but they had to sweat it out after Christian Kofane pulled one back for Leverkusen in the 83rd.

The other Sunday games are SV Hamburg v VfB Stuttgart and Eintracht Frankfurt v Wolfsburg.