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.
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