Kane rescues Bayern from slipping to first Bundesliga defeat of the season against last-placed Mainz

Audio By Carbonatix

BERLIN (AP) — Harry Kane has rescued Bayern Munich from an embarrassing home defeat to the last-placed team in the Bundesliga.

The England forward scored a penalty in the 87th minute for Bayern to draw 2-2 with Mainz on Sunday. Bayern is the runaway league leader and yet to lose a game.

The visitors were playing their first league game under new coach Urs Fischer, back in the Bundesliga after enjoying great success with Union Berlin. Fischer was appointed last week to replace Bo Henriksen after Mainz’s dismal start.

Bayern dominated from the start and Lennart Karl – the team’s newest star – opened the scoring in the 29th when he was well placed for a tap-in to Serge Gnabry’s cross.

It was Bayern’s 50th Bundesliga goal of the season, a record after just 14 rounds of the league.

But the home team failed to make more of its superiority and was shocked before the break when defender Kacper Potulski equalized. It was the 18-year-old Polish youth international’s first Bundesliga goal in just his second league appearance.

The visiting fans were in dreamland when Lee Jae-sung scored with a header to Stefan Bell’s deep cross in the 67th, but there was still plenty of time for Bayern to respond.

Vincent Kompany sent on Senegal forward Nicolas Jackson for his last appearance before going to Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations starting Dec. 21. Canada’s Alphonso Davies had already gone on for his first league appearance in nine months after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Potulski was penalized for holding Kane and the England forward dusted himself off for what was his league-leading 17th goal of the season.

Mainz managed to hold on for seven minutes of stoppage time to celebrate what felt like a win.

Bayern is now nine points clear of second-placed Leipzig, which lost to Union Berlin on Friday.

Freiburg forward Lucas Höler scored with a spectacular bicycle kick to hold 10-man Borussia Dortmund to a 1-1 draw.

Höler stopped Christian Günter’s cross with his left boot, then turned and struck the ball with his right to send the ball in off the right post in the 75th minute, denying Dortmund the chance to move second.

The goal came a day after Bayer Leverkusen’s Martin Terrier scored a contender for goal of the season on Saturday.

Dortmund had Jobe Bellingham sent off in the 53rd for a foul on Philipp Treu, who would have been through alone on goal after cutting out a poor pass from Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

Ramy Bensebaini had opened the scoring in the 31st after Freiburg’s defense failed to deal with Yan Couto’s free kick.

It’s Dortmund’s second consecutive draw after the disappointing 2-2 draw at Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Jamie Leweling led Stuttgart to a 4-0 win at Werder Bremen in Sunday's late game with a goal and two assists.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer