Bayern players: got a thrashing at Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg breathed life into the Bundesliga title race on Friday with a shock 4-1 hammering of leaders Bayern Munich, who suffered their heaviest league defeat for six years.

Dutch striker Bas Dost gave Wolfsburg a deserved 2-0 half-time lead before ex-Chelsea midfielder Kevin de Bruyne scored two more in the second half to cut Bayern’s lead to eight points at the top of the table.

Bayern coach Pep Guardiola admitted the team deserved to suffer their heaviest Bundesliga defeat for six years.

Bayern leaked as many goals at the Volkswagen Arena as they did in the entire first half of the season.

The home side ruthlessly exploited Bayern’s numerous errors as Dutch striker Bas Dost and Belgium’s Kevin de Bruyne both scored twice in the shock defeat.

Defender Juan Bernat scored what proved to be Bayern’s consolation second-half goal.

The Bavarian giants were missing injured Franck Ribery and Philipp Lahm, but lacked composure and were forced into making a host of mistakes.

For the first time in three years, Bayern found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on their way to their heaviest league defeat since losing 5-1 at Wolfsburg in April 2009 — when Wolves won the Bundesliga title.

“Congratulations to Wolfsburg, they did really well. We deserved to lose,” admitted Guardiola, as second-placed Wolfsburg trimmed Bayern’s lead to eight points.

“They were better in the key moments. After losing too many balls, we couldn’t control Wolfsburg’s counter-attacks.”

Wolfsburg breathed life into the Bundesliga’s title race as Guardiola’s Bayern also lost their first league game of the season.

“We put in a huge performance,” beamed Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking.

“When you want to beat Bayern, you need a day like that. We were brutally focused and scored our goals at just the right time.

“The team did everything we talked about and it went 100 percent according to plan.”

Bayern host fellow Champions League side Schalke 04 on Tuesday, then face VfB Stuttgart next Saturday.

“We made a lot of mistakes and let them hit us on the counter-attack,” admitted Bayern’s stand-in captain Bastian Schweinsteiger.