Bayern Munich were held to a 2-2 home draw with Borussia Dortmund on Saturday, failing to take advantage of Bayer Leverkusen’s slip-up earlier in the day.
With defending champions Leverkusen held to a scoreless draw at home with Union Berlin just an hour before kickoff, Bayern knew a win would move them further ahead.
Dortmund took the lead through Maximilian Beier in the 48th minute but Bayern hit back with two goals in four minutes before Waldemar Anton equalised for the visitors with 15 minutes remaining.
Usually a fixture on the German football calendar, the buzz around the match was comparatively muted.
The visitors came to Munich sitting nine spots and 27 points behind in the table, while both Bayern and Dortmund are in the midst of Champions League quarter-finals, having lost the first legs to Inter Milan and Barcelona respectively.
Bayern, enduring an injury crisis with several first-teamers missing, were camped out in Dortmund’s box for almost the entire first half. Visiting goalkeeper Gregor Kobel needed to snuff out great chances for Harry Kane and Michael Olise.
Seemingly on the ropes at half-time, Dortmund opened the scoring three minutes into the second period, Beier heading between Bayern goalie Jonas Urbig’s legs to finish off a length-of-the-field counter.
With Dortmund in the ascendancy and probing for a second, Kompany brought on Serge Gnabry and the move worked a treat.
The former Arsenal forward created the equaliser for former Dortmund midfielder Raphael Guerreiro on the 65-minute mark and then scored a goal of his own four minutes later, slaloming through the visiting defence before hammering home.
Dortmund hit back to level things up 15 minutes from time when Anton knocked in a rebound from a Serhou Guirassy shot.
Despite the draw, Bayern remain heavy favourites to lift the Bundesliga title. The Bavarians are six points ahead with five games remaining this season.
Nursing an ongoing Achilles injury, Bayern centre-back Kim Min-Jae was subbed off in the second half, leaving the Germans with just one fit central defender ahead of Wednesday’s trip to Inter.
– Leverkusen held at home –
Despite welcoming back star midfielder Florian Wirtz from a foot injury, Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen lacked fluency in attack, carving out few clear-cut opportunities in a 0-0 home draw with Union Berlin.
Union had the ball in the net after 14 minutes when Andrej Ilic headed in a rebound after a save from Lukas Hradecky, but the Serbian was flagged for offside.
Wirtz came on after 57 minutes and despite giving his side an initial boost, was unable to break down Union’s defence.
Granit Xhaka had a free-kick from the edge of the box in stoppage time but blasted his shot well over the bar.
“We’re dropping too many points at home,” Leverkusen captain Hradecky said, adding “Mathematically there’s a small chance (of defending the title), but the probability has decreased.”
The draw continues a poor April for last season’s unbeaten domestic double winners, who were eliminated from the German Cup semi-finals by third-division Arminia Bielefeld.
The draw took Union to 34 points, 12 clear of the relegation spots with five games remaining.
The Berliners have taken 11 points from an unbeaten five-game run against Leverkusen, Bayern, Eintracht Frankfurt, Freiburg and Wolfsburg.
Borussia Moenchengladbach’s hopes of returning to the Champions League took a hit with a 2-1 home loss to Freiburg.
Freiburg snatched all three points when Johan Manzambi scored a 90th-minute header, allowing the visitors to leapfrog their opponents into sixth.
Augsburg continued their strong 2025 with a 2-1 win at lowly Bochum, climbing past Dortmund into eighth. Augsburg have only lost one of their past 13 games.
Elsewhere, Hoffenheim took a step towards beating the drop with a 2-0 home win over Champions League hopefuls Mainz, with Andrej Kramaric scoring a brace.
St Pauli also boosted their hopes of top-division football next season with a 2-1 win over fellow promoted side Holstein Kiel.
AFP
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