Ze Roberto saves Lucio's blushes as Bayern draw with Hamburg

Hamburg went into the match against Bayern sitting in fourth spot and knowing defeat would see them nine points adrift and out of the title race. Instead a 1-1 draw means they return north joint third in table with Bayer Leverkusen and just two points adrift of Bremen.

 The 69,000 fans at a sold-out Allianz Arena in Munich saw a first half bereft of clear-cut chances with Bayern going close only once, when on 23 minutes Luca Toni almost got on the end of a pass from Miroslav Klose.

 However, the second half was a much more open affair with the first half-chance falling Hamburg's way in the 54th minute as Ze Roberto cut out a dangerous cross from Ivica Olic.

 Within a minute, Ze Roberto could have put the home side in front but instead it was Olic who opened the scoring on the hour mark when a dreadful error from Lucio saw the Brazilian defender lose possession to David Jarolim, who promptly set up the Croatian to slam the ball home from 11 metres.

 But six minutes later Bayern were level as substitute Franck Ribery pulled the ball back for Ze Roberto to make it 1-1 and salvage a point for Bayern.

 The game finished on a sour note for Bayern as Mark van Bommel was sent off in added time when he received two yellow cards in quick succession, the second for gesturing his disgust at being booked in the first place.

 The draw sees Bayern move on to 44 points, four clear of Bremen, who lost 1-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt Saturday, and six ahead of Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen.

 In the day's other match, the league's bottom two clubs Nuremberg and Energie Cottbus played out a 1-1 draw to remain mired in the relegation zone.

 Marco Engelhardt put Nuremberg ahead in the 58th minute after some fine build-up work from Jan Koller but Cottbus equalized a minute later when Dennis Sorensen surprised Nuremberg goalkeeper Jaromir Blazek to score at the near post.

 In Saturday action, Leverkusen took full advantage of Bremen's slip-up thanks to a 1-0 win over fellow challengers Schalke 04.

 The defending champions VfB Stuttgart, who are having a disappointing season, beat SC Karlsruhe 3-1 in a local derby.

 Hertha Berlin and VfL Wolfsburg played to a goalless draw in Berlin, while Borussia Dortmund won 1-0 against Hansa Rostock.

 At the wrong end of the table MSV Duisburg scored an important 2-0 victory at fellow strugglers Arminia Bielefeld.

By George Burns, dpa