Late Lahm strike rescues point for Bayern

Germany defender Philipp Lahm saved Bayern Munich’s blushes on Saturday with a late equaliser to snatch a point from their 3-3 draw at home to bottom side Moenchengladbach.

With league leaders Dortmund playing Sunday against Hanover, defending champions Bayern are still off the pace in the league as they are ninth in the table and nine points behind top place.

Bayern got off to the worst possible start when ‘Gladbach midfielder Patrick Herrmann caught Munich’s defence napping with a wonderful long-range goal from the wing after only five minutes.

Germany striker Mario Gomez pulled back an equaliser after 11 minutes before midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger netted from a simple tap in after a pass from Danijel Pranjic on 40 minutes to put the hosts 2-1 up.

But Schweinsteiger then missed a penalty just three minutes later when he fired his shot against the post and his failure so nearly cost Bayern dear.

‘Gladbach equalised when midfielder Marco Reus netted in the 56th minute when he sent Bayern goalkeeper Hans-Joerg Butt the wrong way.

The guests sent their fans into raptures and took the lead when Belgium striker Igor de Camargo netted on the hour mark to make it 3-2 despite Bayern having 70 percent of the possession.

Bayern hit back when the ball fell to Lahm on the right side of the penalty area and the right-back, who has committed to Munich until 2015, slammed his shot past ‘Gladbach keeper Christofer Heimeroth on 84 minutes.

Second-placed Mainz suffered a 1-0 defeat to Freiburg as striker Papiss Demba Cisse netted a late penalty and Dortmund can now open a four-point lead if they win Sunday.

Eintracht Frankfurt are up to third in the league after they beat Wolfsburg 3-1 with the league’s top-scorer Theofanis Gekas netting twice to take his tally in the league to 11 goals for the season.

Hoffenheim are fourth despite losing 2-1 at Hamburg, who are now up to joint sixth in the table with Nuremberg who beat Cologne 3-1.

Fifth-placed Bayer Leverkusen are at home to Kaiserslautern on Sunday while second-from-bottom Stuttgart host struggling Werder Bremen.

On Friday, former Spain international great Raul scored a brace as Bundesliga strugglers Schalke 04 finally ended their jinx at the Veltins-Arena with a 3-0 home defeat of St. Pauli.

Schalke were second from bottom and moved up two places to 15th on nine points, 16 adrift of league leaders Borussia Dortmund. St. Pauli remain in 13th on 13 points.