Owen Hargreaves saved Bayern Munich Saturday with an injury time free kick, lifting the defending champions to a 3-3 draw against Hannover 96.
Bayern trailed 3-1 at the half before mounting a furious comeback as the Bundesliga played on its hottest day ever with temperatures at some stadiums soaring to 44 Celsius.
"I think I struck it very well. A free kick like that gives you self-confidence," said Hargreaves, who recorded just his second goal in 70 Bundesliga matches.
PHOTO: AFP
Fire departments were called in all across the league to spray down the spectators for relief on a day when there was just two victories in seven matches.
Borussia Dortmund, belying the heat, went top of the table with an energetic performance in a 4-0 thrashing of Wolfsburg behind two goals by Czech star Tomas Rosicky.
Hannover already scored a huge upset last week by stunning Hamburger SV 3-0 and appeared set to bag an even bigger coup against Bayern after heading into the break up two goals.
But the defending champions attacked relentlessly in the second half and deserved the draw.
Peruvian forward Claudio Pizarro put back a rejected attempt by Bastian Schweinsteiger to pull back a goal. That set up the game decider by Hargreaves, whose free kick flew just under the bar 49 seconds into injury time.
But the day also belonged to Pizarro, who was Bayern's best player on the field and built his case for staying first choice. A forward battle on the side has been triggered by the signing of La Coruna's Roy Makaay.
Pizarro also scored another goal called offsides that clearly was legitimate.
"He was excellent," Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld said. "The goal was not offsides. That was bitter for him -- otherwise he would have scored the gamewinner."
Bayern, which played a sloppy first half, was shocked by a beautiful 10th minute free kick score by Nebojsa Krupnikovic. Amidst Bayern's sloppy passing and failure to hold the ball, Jiri Stajner scored in the 25th and Thomas Christiansen in the 43rd.
In between, Michael Ballack kept Bayern in the match with a powerful long distance blast in the 39th minute blast which surprised 'keeper Gerhard Tremmel, who bobbled the ball.
Dortmund hadn't delivered a first-rate match on attack since late last season and has been decimated by injuries. That's one reason coach Matthias Sammer had publicly criticized Rosicky, saying the playmaker needed to raise his play.
Rosicky responded by finishing off an Otto Addo cross in the 24th minute, shaking off a defender and stroking it inside the left post. He then volleyed in a rejection in the 51st.
"I think it did me good," Rosicky said of Sammer's remarks. "But it was good because we've had considerable problems."
The match was played at Dortmund's Westafalenstadion.
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