MUNICH, Germany, Dec 14 : Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich needed an 87th-minute penalty from forward Harry Kane to rescue a 2-2 home draw against basement side Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga on Sunday but still managed to extend their lead at the top to nine points.
Goals from Lee Jae-sung and Kacper Potulski had put the visitors in the driving seat after Lennart Karl’s first-half opener for the Bavarians, before England captain Kane netted his 18th league goal of the season to save the hosts’ blushes and narrowly avoid their second league loss of the season.
Bayern are in top spot on 38 points, with RB Leipzig second on 29 following Friday’s 3-1 loss at Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund in third, on goal difference, after their 1-1 draw at Freiburg.
They have also reached the 50-goal mark in their 14th Bundesliga match of the season, the fastest in league history.
“We were in complete control for the first 44 minutes and had many chances to score,” Kane said. “The sudden equaliser just before halftime changed the momentum.”
“We came out of the break dominant again, but lacked the last touch. They then scored a nice goal, and we had to fight back. We’ve had a lot of games in a short period, but that’s no excuse,” added the Bundesliga’s leading scorer.
“Of course, we wanted to go into the winter break with two wins. A draw at home is disappointing, but we have to accept it and move on.”
The Bundesliga will go into its traditional winter break from December 21 to January 9.
It was one-way traffic at the start with Bayern having more than 85 per cent possession in the first 15 minutes.
Mainz did hit the post through Kaishu Sano but the Bavarians then forced a string of superb saves from Mainz goalkeeper Daniel Batz, including stopping Kane’s point-blank header and tipping Michael Olise’s shot wide.
It looked like only a matter of time until Bayern scored and they did it in the 29th minute with in-form 17-year-old Karl turning a Serge Gnabry cutback in for his third league goal of the season. Karl has now scored four goals in his last five starts for Bayern across all competitions.
Mainz, however, were far from done and they drew level on the stroke of halftime with Potulski’s powerful header after the Bayern defence were caught napping.
With the hosts back in control and wasting a double chance through Gnabry and Kane at the start of the second half, Mainz struck against the run of play, with Lee beating keeper Manuel Neuer with his looping header to silence the home crowd.
With time running out Bayern poured forward and Kane was awarded a spotkick when he was brought down in the box. He coolly converted to make it 20 goals from 20 penalties in his Bundesliga career.
