The last time Bayern Munich lost three matches in a row, in May 2015, it was a disease of luxury. With his team having already clinched its third straight Bundesliga title -- three straight titles! Can you imagine? -- Pep Guardiola had the option of rotating his squad heavily in league matches against Bayer Leverkusen and Augsburg in preparation for the Champions League semifinals against maybe the most talented Barcelona team of the century.
Bayer Leverkusen prevailed 2-0, Augsburg won 1-0 with Bayern playing with 10 men for 77 minutes, and in between, masterful Barcelona delivered an 11th-round knockout, scoring three goals after the 75th minute (including that goal) to turn a back-and-forth affair into a 3-0 win.
Almost nine years (and eight Bundesliga titles) later, Bayern have lost three in a row once more -- only this time, there's minimal luxury to be found.
Bayern are still on pace for 77 points in league play, mind you -- six more points than last season, when they narrowly took down Borussia Dortmund to win their 11th straight title -- and despite a funky 1-0 loss at Lazio in last week's round of 16, they're still the No. 4 favorite to win the Champions League, according to ESPN BET. Life could be worse, but Bayern trail a torrid Bayer Leverkusen by eight points in the Bundesliga, Opta's power ratings now say there's a 90.6% chance that their title streak will end in the coming months, and they have already agreed to part ways with an expensive manager after the season, less than a year after parting with a different expensive manager.
On Saturday, Bayern will host RB Leipzig (12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+), a side against whom Bayern are winless in their past four matches. Another poor performance could bring Bayer Leverkusen's title odds even closer to 100%; it also might force Bayern to reconsider its current, questionable lame-duck arrangement with Thomas Tuchel. It also could be the start of a turnaround, of course, but that feels less likely than usual.
How did things get to this point?