Eintracht Frankfurt v Bayern Munich 1-1
Gomez salvages draw with late spot-kick
23.04.2011
Bayern suffered a setback in their pursuit of a Champions League qualifying spot on Saturday, as Andries Jonker’s second game in charge ended in a 1-1 draw away to Eintracht Frankfurt, although it could have been worse in a hard-fought and generally enthralling match, as Mario Gomez’s equaliser came with just a minute of the regular 90 to go.
The 51,500 full house at the Commerzbank Arena saw the visitors dominate an incident-filled first-half without creating the clear-cut opportunities which would have provided a deserved half-time lead. Gomez so nearly opened the scoring with the first chance after the restart, but the first goal instead fell to Sebastian Rode as the strugglers took a shock lead.
Munich angrily penned the home side back into their final third after that, but FCB were denied a stonewall penalty after the match officials failed to spot Ricardo Clark’s handball in the box, although justice was ultimately done a minute from time when Gomez converted a spot-kick after a foul on Luiz Gustavo.
The disappointing draw means the champions slip back to fourth in the Bundesliga on 56 points from 31 matches, one behind stubborn rivals Hannover and eight off second-placed Leverkusen, both of whom won their weekend fixtures. The Bavarians resume their pursuit of a Champions League qualifying berth next Saturday afternoon when Schalke are the visitors to the Allianz Arena.
Jonker made one enforced change to the side which thumped Leverkusen 5-1 last weekend. Diego Contento, a first-half sub for Danijel Pranjic in the Bayer clash, replaced the injured Croat in Saturday’s starting line-up, but with Arjen Robben serving out a two-match ban, it was otherwise a case of as you were.
Jörg Butt kept goal, with Daniel van Buyten, Luiz Gustavo and skipper Philipp Lahm in defence, Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Bastian Schweinsteiger in twin holding roles, Thomas Müller and Franck Ribery out wide, and Miroslav Klose in behind centre-forward Gomez.
Once referee Dr Joachim Drees whistled play underway on another glorious afternoon in this year’s beautiful German spring, the sides set about each other with vigour, although the visitors posed much the greater threat in an entertaining first period.
Butt had trouble dealing with Martin Fenin’s early cross, only for former FCB reserve Patrick Ochs to waste the opening with a poor first touch. The play switched to the other end, where Klose wrestled control of a bouncing ball and set up Ribery, the Frenchman’s shot smacking off Eintracht keeper Ralf Fährmann and away to safety.
Müller came up inches short of connecting with a Ribery pass and Klose had a shot blocked, before Müller himself twisted and turned past makeshift right-back Benjamin Köhler, only for Marco Russ and Rode to smother the danger.
The lively Müller was thwarted again after a good run and Gomez fired over the bar, before Halil Altintop – his twin brother Hamit was missing for Bayern with injury – and Eintracht’s leading scorer Theofanis Gekas both aimed too high at the other end.
Butt showed great composure to collect a deflected cross from directly under his crossbar and then beat out a swerving Fenin drive, but Christoph Daum’s men were certainly the happier with the goalless scoreline at half-time.
The opener almost came with the first move after the restart, Fährmann spectacularly blocking from Gomez as the FCB man shaped to blast home, but the first goal of the game ultimately fell at the wrong end from a Bayern point of view, Rode arrowing a drive past Butt after the Munich defence failed to deal with Fenin’s 53rd-minute free-kick.
Fährmann saved Müller’s near-post effort, and the Germany international might have had a penalty after a clumsy challenge by USA international Clark, before Ochs, Contento and Schweinsteiger all saw yellow cards as tempers flared following a foul on the Eintracht man.
Toni Kroos replaced Tymoshchuk for the last 20 minutes or so, but Van Buyten powered a free-kick over the bar, and fortunately for the visitors, Gekas did the same at the other end with a free header at the back stick. Fährmann got down smartly to a long-range Ribery belter, and safely gathered a dangerous centre by the Frenchman, before Gomez broke free but saw his shot deflected into the side-netting.
There was a mighty let-off for FCB with nine minutes to go when Gekas utterly miskicked two yards from an empty net after fine work from Sebastian Jung, but Jonker’s men were then denied a clear penalty when Clark handled the ball in the box under pressure from Müller.
Munich kept up the pressure, but Fährmann pushed a Gomez drive over the bar, before Bayern were finally awarded the spot-kick they should have had earlier when Fenin crashed into Gustavo in the box two minutes from time. Gomez coolly converted to level the scores, and came within a whisker of a second in a frantic period of stoppage time, before Jonker and Co had to settle for an ultimately unsatisfactory draw.
Live match report for fcbayern.de by Chris Hamley
MATCH STATS
Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayern Munich 1-1 (H-T: 0-0)
Eintracht Frankfurt: Fährmann - Jung, Russ, Rode, Köhler - Schwegler, Clark - Ochs, Fenin (Caio 90+3), Halil Altintop – Gekas
Substitutes: Nikolov, Vasoski, Kraus, Titsch-Rivero, Heller, Amanatidis
Bayern Munich: Butt - Lahm, Van Buyten, Luiz Gustavo, Contento - Tymoshchuk (Kroos 69), Schweinsteiger - Müller, Klose, Ribéry - Gomez
Substitutes: Kraft, Breno, Badstuber, Ottl
Referee: Dr. Jochen Drees (Münster-Sarmsheim)
Spectators: 51,500 (capacity)
Goals: 1-0 Rode (54), 1-1 Gomez (89, penalty)
Yellow Cards: Köhler, Ochs, Jung, Fenin / Contento, Schweinsteiger, Gomez, Gustavo
Credit: FC Bayern Munich (www.fcbayern.t-com.de)
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