Harry Kane spares Bayern’s blushes with a late equalizer in a 2-2 draw against Mainz

Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich needed an 87th-minute penalty from Harry Kane to salvage a 2-2 home draw against Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga on Sunday, but still managed to extend their lead at the top to nine points.

Goals from Lee Jae-sung and Kacper Potulski had put the visiting side in charge after Lennart Karl’s first-half opener for the Bavarians, before England captain Kane scored his 18th league goal of the season to spare Bayern’s blushes.

Bayern are in first place on 38 points, with RB Leipzig in second on 29 after Friday’s 1-3 defeat at Union Berlin and Borussia Dortmund in third place, on goal difference, after the 1-1 draw in Freiburg.

It was one-way traffic at the start, with Bayern having more than 85 percent of the ball in the first fifteen minutes.

Mainz hit the post through Kaishu Sano, but the Bavarians then forced a series of brilliant saves from Mainz goalkeeper Daniel Batz, including stopping Kane’s point-blank header and tipping Michael Olise’s shot wide.

It seemed only a matter of time before Bayern scored, and they did so in the 29th minute, when the in-form 17-year-old Karl turned in Serge Gnabry’s cutback for his third league goal of the season. Karl has now scored four goals in his last five starts for Bayern in all competitions.

However, Mainz were far from done and leveled on the stroke of half-time, with Potulski’s powerful header after Bayern’s defense was caught napping.

With the host side back in control and squandering a double chance through Gnabry and Kane early in the second half, Mainz struck against the run of play, with Lee’ beating goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with his running header to silence the home crowd.

With time running out, Bayern moved forward and Kane was awarded a penalty when he was brought down in the penalty area. He coolly converted and made it twenty goals from twenty penalties in his Bundesliga career.

Published on December 15, 2025