Ribery injury blow as Wolfsburg frustrate Bayern

BERLIN - Wolfsburg hit a late equaliser to frustrate Bayern Munich whose Bundesliga restart after the winter break was also overshadowed by another injury to Franck Ribery.

Meanwhile Mainz lost further ground on leaders Borussia Dortmund but stay second despite a 1-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart, substitute Martin Harnik netting the only goal 11 minutes from time.

Bayern’s dropped points leave them fifth on 30 points, three adrift of Mainz and Leverkusen, who went down 3-1 Friday at home to Dortmund, now 13 points clear at the top.

“I think we should have been 3-0 up at half-time and had many chances in the second half - and then we made this mistake,” Bayern coach Louis van Gaal said of Wolfsburg’s late equaliser.

“It is actually incredible because I think this is the fifth game this has happened.

“I thought we played better than in our previous games. Wolfsburg were only dangerous with free-kicks and corners. In the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes we dominated and created lots of chances. But that’s not enough when we make such a mistake.”

The sight of Ribery limping off yet again did nothing to lift Bayern’s spirits. The France midfielder, who has only just recovered from a torn ankle ligament, was helped to the changing rooms minutes after apparently twisting his knee in a challenge with Josue on 20 minutes.

Ribery’s departure allowed Dutch winger Arjen Robben to come off the bench for his first appearance since the World Cup final defeat to Spain July 11.

Bayern said they were waiting for a diagnosis of the injury.

“We’ll have to wait and see. We will know more on Sunday or Monday,” Van Gaal said.

Both sides mised penalties in an incident-packed match which began with Mario Gomez hitting the bar in the fifth minute before Bayern took the lead two minutes later through Thomas Mueller.

As expected Bayern coach Louis van Gaal gave his debut in goal to 22-year-old Thomas Kraft, and it was the keeper’s long free-kick which set up the opener.

Wolfsburg keeper Diego Benaglio came out of the area to intercept but his attempt at a clearance rebounded off Mueller and straight into an empty net.

Bayern missed a chance to go further in front in the 22nd minute when Philipp Lahm struck his penalty against the post after Danijel Pranjic was been brought down by Ashkan Dejagah.

The home side then squandered a penalty in first-half stoppage time when Grafite’s shot was tipped onto the bar by Kraft after Dejagah was ruled to have been fouled by Holger Badstuber.

Further chances fell to both sides after the break, with Kraft tipping a Mario Mandzukic header over the bar and Benaglio stretching to parry a long-range effort from Robben.

But it was Wolfsburg who struck with four minutes remaining when Marcel Schaefer got past Bastian Schweinsteiger too easily on the left of the area and his cross was converted at close range by Sascha Riether.

Elsewhere, visiting SV Hamburg downed Schalke 1-0 thanks to a 53rd-minute header from Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has told the club Real Madrid would like to re-sign him. The 34-year-old Dutch striker joined Hamburg from real in January 2010.

The win moves Hamburg up to seventh, while Schalke stay 10th.

Torsten Frings hit a stoppage-time winner from a free-kick to give Werder Bremen a 2-1 home win over Hoffenheim.

The visitors, playing for the first time under coach Marco Pezzaiuoli, went behind to a 36th-minute Claudio Pizarro goal but thought they had earned a point when Boris Vukcevic equalized with three minutes to go.

Lowly St Pauli twice took the lead before ending 2-2 with sixth-placed Freiburg while Borussia Moenchengladbach stayed bottom despite a 1-0 win at Nuremberg.

Hanover could go second if the win at Eintracht Frankfurt Sunday, while Cologne take on Kaiserslautern in the day’s other game.