GreenBkk FCB | Borussia Monchengladbach 3 Bayern 3

Borussia Monchengladbach 3 Bayern 3

Champions held by Borussia in six-goal thriller

Bayern suffered a minor setback in their quest to make up ground in the Bundesliga with a 3-3 draw away to bottom club Borussia Monchengladbach on Saturday, but the champions ended up thankful for a point after Philipp Lahm’s late strike staved off defeat in a rip-roaring top flight encounter.

The 54,057 capacity crowd at Borussia Park saw Patrick Herrmann and on-fire Mario Gomez trade goals in a whirlwind opening spell, but the champions gained the upper hand and hit the goal-frame twice as the breathless action continued. Bastian Schweinsteiger finally handed FCB an overdue lead, but the midfielder turned from hero to villain with a missed penalty which would surely have wrapped up the points before half-time.

Instead, Borussia administered swift punishment as Marco Reus and sub Igor De Camargo turned the game on its head with two goals in four minutes around the hour mark. Munich angrily laid siege to the home goal and Lahm levelled six minutes from time

The result takes the champions up to ninth on 16 points from eleven matches, now nine off leaders Dortmund. The men from Munich are next in action at the Allianz Arena on Sunday 14 November against Bavarian neighbours Nürnberg.

With comebacks for Franck Ribery and Holger Badstuber ruled out on Friday, Louis van Gaal saw no reason to change the line-up which performed so impressively in beating Cluj in the midweek Champions League fixture. The back four comprised captain Philipp Lahm, Daniel van Buyten, Martin Demichelis and Danijel Pranjic, with Anatoliy Tymoshchuk alongside Andi Ottl in the dual holding positions.

In-form Schweinsteiger assumed the playmaking duties, with Hamit Altintop and Toni Kroos out wide and midweek hat-trick hero Gomez up front. Thomas Müller again started on a subs’ bench numbering just four men.

Once referee Knut Kircher whistled play underway on a crisp afternoon in the Lower Rhineland, the sides tore into each other from the off and exchanged chances right at the start, Raul Bobadilla shooting straight at Jörg Butt with only the FCB keeper to beat, and Schweinsteiger heading into the side-netting from a Kroos set-play.

Hermann’s opening goal after five minutes was still a surprise in more ways than one: the youngster’s mis-hit right-wing cross sailed over the stranded Butt and in at the far post, the product of pure good fortune and a positioning error from the Bayern shot-stopper.

The champions refused to be rattled by the early setback and were level on 11 minutes, Gomez heading his ninth goal in the last seven matches at the back stick from a superbly flighted Kroos free-kick.

Altintop tested home keeper Christofer Heimeroth with a 16th-minute drive as Van Gaal’s men eased into the driving seat, but the Borussia defence somehow cleared dangerous balls in from Lahm and Pranjic, Gomez saw a goalbound shot blocked by Filip Daems, and Schweinsteiger’s 30th-minute header from Altintop’s cross struck the underside of the bar.

The action continued unabated but the second goal continued to evade the visitors, Heimeroth bravely denying Gomez after Schweinsteiger’s sublime short pass, and Kroos planting a lob off the bar from the rebound. The deserved lead finally arrived five minutes before the break, Pranjic collecting Lahm’s long crossfield ball out on the left and centring for Schweinsteiger to nonchalantly flick home with his heel at the near post.

It should really have been three before half-time after Sebastian Schachten felled Altintop in the Gladbach box, Kircher pointing to the spot without a moment’s hesitation, but Schweinsteiger blotted his copybook with a weak spot-kick off Heimeroth’s left-hand post and the ball trundled away to safety.

Gladbach boss Michael Frontzek made two changes at the break and his men came out fighting for the second half, although the visitors repelled the attacks comfortably enough until sub Igor De Camargo’s defence-slitting pass allowed Reus a clear run at Butt, the winger finishing coolly to level things up on 56 minutes.

Worse was to follow just four minutes later when the same two players combined again, Reus turning provider this time for De Camargo to accelerate past Van Buyten and beat Butt from a tight angle. Bayern were stung into action and poured forward, but Heimeroth parried Altintop’s header, before Müller took over from Ottl for the last 20 minutes.

Munich laid siege to the home goal as Frontzek’s men withdrew into their own third of the field, but inaccurate crosses, blocked shots and near-misses were the order of the day. David Alaba replaced Pranjic for the closing stages, and persistence finally paid off six minutes from time when Lahm collected a loose ball and smacked home into the roof of the net.

Gomez shot on the turn whistled just over the bar as the thrilling entertainment continued right to the end, but Kroos directed the final chance of the game wide of the target as a genuinely quality match ended with the scores level.

Credit: FC Bayern Munich