Before the European campaign: a surprise stumble for Bayern Munich against Schalke

The Bavarian side failed to translate their dominance into goals.

Bayern Munich stumbled unexpectedly in the German league, settling for a goalless draw away to hosts Schalke today, Saturday, at the "Veltins-Arena", in the second round of the competition.

The result lifted the Bavarian giants to 4 points and fourth in the Bundesliga table, two points behind Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund and Elversberg, who share top spot on 6 points.

Schalke, meanwhile, opened their account with a first point to climb up to 14th place.

Bayern had gone into the match in high spirits. They began the defence of their title with a big win over Stuttgart 5-1, then repeated their superiority in the German Cup by beating Osnabrück 4-1.

This time, though, they failed to find the net against Schalke. That came despite the big gap in resources between the two sides, their 82% dominance of possession and 15 shots on target, five of which struck the posts and the crossbar.

Vincent Kompany made notable changes to his line-up compared to the Bundesliga opener. Most prominent was the inclusion of Morocco international Ismael Saibari in the starting eleven, after he set up two goals following his appearance as a substitute against Stuttgart in the first round, then started against Osnabrück in the German Cup.

Saibari left the pitch in the 57th minute, replaced by his French team-mate Michael Olise.

The clash carried special significance for Schalke, who played their first Bundesliga match at the "Veltins-Arena" in more than 3 years, following their return to the top flight.

They had lost their opening match of the season in the Bundesliga against Augsburg (0-3).