Draw keeps Freiburg in Bundesliga drop zone

Freiburg stayed in the Bundesliga’s bottom three Sunday as hosts Hoffenheim forced a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

Freiburg looked on course to escape the drop zone with a second consecutive win when, following a mistake in the home defence, midfielder Johannes Flum pounced on a loose ball, drew Hoffenheim goalkeeper Timo Hildebrand and squared to Mohamadou Idrissou who rifled his shot into the net on 64 minutes.

But Hoffenheim levelled when Croatian defender Josip Simunic netted in the 79th minute.

The result leaves Freiburg third from bottom.

If they remain there until the season ends on May 8, they will face a play-off with the third-placed team in the second division for the right to stay in the top flight.

On Saturday, a Kevin Kuranyi double put Schalke 04 top of the Bundesliga in a 2-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen, as Bayern Munich lost again, a shattering setback ahead of their Champions League clash against Manchester United.

Kuranyi scored both goals in the first-half to put Felix Magath-coached Schalke two-points clear at the top with six games remaining.

The Royal Blues, who are chasing their first German league title since 1958, also saw Kuranyi take over from Leverkusen’s injured Stefan Kiessling as the league’s top-scorer with 17 goals.

The defeat left Bayer Leverkusen third in the table, five points behind the new leaders. Bundesliga league table

Bayern suffered a second consecutive league defeat when they slumped to a 2-1 home loss to Stuttgart.

The German giants must now pick themselves up in time to face Manchester United at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday in the Champions League quarter-final first-leg and are waiting on the fitness of chief playmaker Arjen Robben.

Bayern took the lead through Croatia striker Ivica Olic, but Stuttgart hit back with goals from Christian Traesch and Ciprian Marica to hand the Munich giants another defeat to follow last weekend’s shock setback at Frankfurt.

This was their fourth league loss of the season.

After last weekend’s 5-1 win at defending champions Wolfsburg, bottom side Hertha Berlin picked up yet another point when they held fourth-placed Dortmund to a 0-0 draw.

Greek striker Theofanis Gekas, who scored three goals against Wolfsburg, found the net with a second-half header, but the effort was ruled offside.

The result still leaves Hertha four points from safety.

Werder Bremen remain on course for a top-five finish with a 4-2 win over relegation contenders Nuremberg despite finishing with 10 men.

Cologne did their chances of staying up the power of good with a 4-1 win at bottom-three side Hanover.

Defending champions Wolfsburg remain in mid-table after their 2-0 win at Mainz after two goals from striker Edin Dzeko.

Sixth-placed Hamburg are at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday evening.