Bayern had scored in 59 straight games, and then Loris Karius kept them out for 90 minutes

Bayern Munich had scored in 59 consecutive competitive matches before Saturday evening in Gelsenkirchen. Loris Karius ended that, and then spent the aftermath handing the credit to everyone else.

Schalke, back in the top flight after winning the second division last season, held the champions to a goalless draw in front of 62,094 at the Veltins-Arena. It was their first Bundesliga home game since May 2023, and it came a week after they had been taken apart 3-0 at Augsburg, a night on which Karius was beaten three times and still made ten saves, more than any other goalkeeper that weekend.

Bayern built up 1.5 expected goals and scored none of them

Vincent Kompany had rested Harry Kane and Michael Olise with a Champions League tie against Bodø/Glimt coming, pushing Ismael Saibari up front and starting Lennart Karl on the right. For half an hour it looked like the sort of decision nobody would ever ask about. Bayern had 73 per cent of the ball inside the opening 11 minutes, Alphonso Davies rolled an early low cross just wide of the far post, and Nathaniel Brown was kept out by a diving Karius save on 13.

Then Schalke settled. Moussa Sylla began stealing possession high up, Dayot Upamecano was booked for hauling him down, and Adil Aouchiche forced Neuer into a diving save from a free-kick on 36. Bayern’s clearest opening of the half fell to Luis Díaz on 41, played in by Brown, and he scuffed it into the stands.

Kane came on at half-time. Olise and Jamal Musiala followed on 57. Within two minutes Olise was through on the right and Karius saved again. Nikola Katić blocked Kane in the box on 63, Konrad Laimer sliced into the side netting on 64, and by the 78th minute Bayern had run up nearly 1.5 expected goals against Schalke’s 0.1 and had nothing to show for it. The best of the lot came late: Kane collected 25 yards out, hit a piledriver bound for the top corner, and Karius tipped it over.

“Loris Karius was very good and definitely the right choice for Man of the Match. We had three big chances that he kept out,” Neuer said. “That was definitely key to us not winning this game.”

Karius, at 33, gets an evening that is his

Karius will always be attached to the 2018 Champions League final, eight years of being reminded of it, and he has said since that he thought about leaving the game altogether. Schalke gave him a way back. This was probably his best night in royal blue, and he would not take much of it.

“It was great for me. I only had to shout to keep going, move up, drop back,” he said. “Real credit to the guys for what they did. They kept so much away and made things so incredibly hard for Bayern. The guys really worked hard until they couldn’t go anymore. Everyone today can be proud of their performance.”

Two runs ended in one evening

The scoring streak went back to 5 July 2025, when Bayern lost a Club World Cup quarter-final 2-0 to a nine-man PSG. Fifty-nine games later they finally drew a blank. In the league the wait was longer: their last Bundesliga game without a goal was a 0-0 at Bayer Leverkusen on 15 February 2025.

The other record will sting more in Munich. Bayern went top on Matchday 3 of the 2024-25 season, Kompany’s third game in charge, and had not left it since. Sixty-seven consecutive matchdays at the summit is the longest such run in Bundesliga history, and it stopped here. They are fourth on four points from two games, having opened with a 5-1 win over Stuttgart, behind Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund and promoted Elversberg, all of whom have won twice.

Two matchdays in, the table is barely worth reading. What is worth noting is that Bayern had won their first three of the season, including the Supercup against Dortmund and a 4-1 DFB Cup win over second-tier Osnabrück, and that a Schalke side beaten 6-0 by these opponents in their last meeting nullified them for 90 minutes. Schalke are 14th with a point, and celebrated it like a win.

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