Bayern Munich went back to the top of the Bundesliga by beating Freiburg, with BBC Sport reporting the champions also paying tribute to absent manager Vincent Kompany.
The result kept Bayern’s unbeaten start intact, which is the part that matters most inside the title race. Momentum in autumn does not settle a league, but it does shape the pressure around everyone else. Bayern had slipped off first place and put themselves straight back there.
The circumstances around the bench gave the win a different weight. BBC Sport reported that Kompany is recovering in hospital after collapsing while watching Bayern’s second team train. Bayern’s response, at least in competitive terms, was controlled enough to collect the points and avoid letting concern turn into distraction.
That is useful information for a side judged on whether it can carry authority through awkward stretches, not only on bright afternoons when everything runs cleanly. An unbeaten start is only a line in the table until strain arrives. Freiburg supplied a match Bayern still had to manage, and they did.
What the available report does not establish is any detail on Kompany’s condition beyond his recovery in hospital. The football fact is clearer: Bayern won, stayed unbeaten and reclaimed first place.
Marcus Azzopardi 
Dua Mifsud 
Ryan C