By Xinhua
Berlin : German Bundesliga football league leaders Bayern Munich were held to a goalless draw by Eintracht Frankfurt, to see Hamburg, who beat Berlin Hertha 2-1 at home, catching up.
With one point from the game, Bayern stayed on top of the league table with 28 points, but the gap was narrowed down to two by Hamburg.
In front of 69,000 fans, Bayern controlled the match for the full 90 minutes and created several clear-cut opportunities.
However, Ottmar Hitzfeld’s team couldn’t turn their dominance into goals. Frankfurt was eager to achieve a first away win, but they were satisfied with the draw.
Bayern had Oliver Kahn and Franck Ribery back but Eintracht coach Friedhelm Funkel had to make do without six players, including keeper Markus Proll and defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos.
Fortunately for Frunkfurt, Proll’s replacement Oka Nikolov turned out to be the hero to save the guest team.
Nikolov had to be on his toes after just twelve seconds when he kept out Italian international Luca Toni’s shot from seven metres.
Nikolov denied the Bundesliga top scorer again four minutes before half-time when he pushed the Italian’s header against the cross-bar, and Patrick Ochs made a goal-line clearance against Lucio from the resulting corner.
Galindo came to Frankfurt’s rescue four minutes into the second half when Miroslav Klose’s lob had already beaten Nikolov, and Ribery’s shot from 25 meters flashed wide soon after.
Bayern continued to press for a winner, but it just wouldn’t come as Toni and Klose missed more opportunities.
Hamburg scored a late winner to give them a 2-1 victory thanks to a header 10 minutes from time by Bastian Reinhardt in front of 56,493 jubilant fans, extending their unbeaten run to 12
Paolo Guerrero gave the home side an early lead, but Patrick Ebert scored the equalizer for the team from Berlin in the 59th minute.
However, Berlin’s hopes of taking away a point were shattered when Reinhardt powered home a header 10 minutes from time.
In another key match, Portuguese striker fired Werder Bremen to their fifth successive home win after a 1-0 win over Hansa Rostock.
Almeida volleyed home Leon Andreasen’s right-wing from close range six minutes before half-time.
The narrow victory kept Werder in title race in Bundesliga with 24 points, four behind the leader.
In the remaining three games, Bayer Leverkusen beat Arminia Bielefeld 4-0, FC Nuremberg lost 0-1 to VfB Stuttgart and Hannover 96 defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-1.