Bayern Munich were unable to break champions Borussia Dortmund’s stranglehold in a 1-1 draw last night as their lead at the top of the Bundesliga was trimmed back to eight points.
Bayern had lost their last four league meetings with Dortmund but had looked on course for victory when Toni Kroos gave them a 67th-minute lead.
However, Mario Goetze equalised for Dortmund in the 74th minute as the spoils were shared.
Third-placed Dortmund improved to 27 points to remain 11 points behind Bayern while Bayer Leverkusen are second on 30 points after their 1-0 win earlier in the day over Nuremberg.
Dortmund’s defence did a good job keeping the Bayern attack in check throughout the first half.
But Bayern took the lead with a wonderful individual effort by Kroos, who collected a ball from Thomas Mueller, danced past two defenders before blasting a low left foot shot into the far right corner.
Dortmund equalised seven minutes later as Marco Reus’s corner from the right side was headed away by Mario Mandzukic but directly to Goetze, who chested the ball down and struck into the corner of the net.
Bayern had a series of chances in the final five minutes but Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller would not let his team down.
“I think we could have taken more. But we are satisfied with the one point.
“The race is not over. We saw today that we can keep track with this team,” said Weidenfeller.
Leverkusen did just enough to beat Nuremberg 1-0 as Stefan Kiessling found the target in the 37th minute for the team’s fourth straight victory.
“We have to remain calm and happy that we have a little streak,” said Kiessling.
“It’s a nice moment but we have a lot of important games ahead of us and we don’t want to think about Bayern. We have to worry about ourselves, and that’s it.”
Results, standings
B. Leverkusen vs Nuremberg - 1-0
Augsburg vs Freiburg - 1-1
Mainz vs Hanover - 2-1
G. Fuerth vs Stuttgart - 0-1
Schalke vs B. M’gladbach - 1-1
B. Munich vs B. Dortmund - 1-1
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| B. Munich | 15 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 41 | 6 | 38 |
| B. Leverkusen | 15 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 28 | 19 | 30 |
| B. Dortmund | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 30 | 16 | 27 |
| Schalke | 15 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 25 | 19 | 25 |
| E. Frankfurt | 15 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 27 | 26 | 24 |
| Mainz | 15 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 21 | 18 | 23 |
| Stuttgart | 15 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 17 | 24 | 22 |
| B. M’gladbach | 15 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 22 | 25 | 21 |
| Freiburg | 15 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 | 17 | 20 |
| Hanover | 15 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 28 | 27 | 20 |
| Hamburg | 14 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 15 | 17 | 20 |
| W. Bremen | 14 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 22 | 23 | 18 |
| Duesseldorf | 15 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 18 | 19 | 18 |
| Nuremberg | 15 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 16 |
| Wolfsburg | 14 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 22 | 15 |
| Hoffenheim | 14 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 21 | 32 | 12 |
| Augsburg | 15 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 26 | 8 |
| G. Fuerth | 15 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 10 | 26 | 8 |
Playing today
Hoffenheim vs W. Bremen - 15.30
Wolfsburg vs Hamburg - 17.30