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Bayern Munich 2. Bolton Wanderers 2.

First Goal In Five Years
By Mark Heys November 8 2007
A Bolton Wanderers side missing twelve first team players gained the biggest European result in their history when holding German giants Bayern Munich to a 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena earlier this evening.

Two goals from Bayern's Lukas Podolski had cancelled out an opener from Ricardo Gardner but Kevin Davies was on hand eight minutes from time to give the Wanderers a share of the spoils.

Many had predicted Bolton would find the task too much of a struggle given the fact that they where without the likes of Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf, Abdoulaye Meite and Jussi Jaaskelainen but the players on show aquitted themselves well in a full to capacity stadium.

Bolton came out determined within the opening two minutes and won successive corners which caught the home side on the unaware and on eight minutes the first goal came from the most unlikely of sources.

Not since his goal against Newcastle United in December 2002 has Ricardo Gardner found the net for Bolton Wanderers but the Jamaican international was on hand to lash the ball home after fellow midfielder Danny Guthrie had lifted a Kevin Davies flick into his path.

The Wanderers where more than a match for Bayern in the first period despite not having much of the ball and Bayern rued the fact that both Podolski and Andreas Otti fired off target of Ali Al-Habsi's goal.

Oman keeper Al-Habsi was making only his second appearance for Bolton and the Middle Eastern stopper made a number of good saves throughout the contest.

It was French wide man Franck Ribery who stole the show though and he proved to be a constant menace to the Bolton defence in the first 45 minutes when drifting from left to right much to the annoyance of Bolton full back Gerald Cid.

On 29 minutes Bolton could have and should have gone 2-0 up when a defence splitting pass from makeshift right back Gavin McCann found its way through to Davies who shot marginally wide of Oliver Kahn's right hand post.

This miss later proved to be costly when Podolski started and finished a fine move for his first goal of the campaign and his sides equalising goal on the half hour.

Bolton still plugged away though and it turned out that reserve goalkeeper Al-Habsi who was the visitors saviour going into the closing moments of the half when making saves from Ribery and Dutch midfielder Mark Van Bommel.

Bastian Schweinsteiger had the best Bayern chance right on the stroke of half time when firing into the side netting after his initial effort was saved well by Al-Habsi.

After the half time break Bayern upped their game and that man Ribery was at the heart of everything they did and on 50 minutes he burst clear into the penalty area to cut the ball back for Podolski to net his second of the night.

By now the Wanderers struggled to make any impact in the final third of the field forcing boss Gary Megson to bring the experienced Stelios Giannakopoulos on in place of Mikel Alonso to give Bolton more options as an attacking force.

Goalscorer Podolski was replaced by Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni ten minutes after the restart and what happened next stunned the Bayern supporters.

Man of the moment Ribery had just forced an excellent save from range from Bolton keeper Al-Habsi only for coach Ottmarr Hitzfeld to substitute the Frenchman who played against Bolton for Olympique Marseille two years ago.

Teenager Toni Kroos entered the fray after his late goalscoring exploits against Red Star Belgrade in the thrilling 3-2 encounter just a fortnight ago to the evening.

This undoubtedly weakened Bayern's chances  and once again midfielder Schweinsteiger was wasteful when presented with a good opportunity on 64 minutes.

With just over ten minutes to go Al-Habsi was once again called into action for Bolton and the Omani native did very well to gather a free kick from Brazilian defender Lucio at the second attempt.

On 82 minutes the Wanderers amazingly found themselves level thanks to some quick thinking from substitute Andranik Teimourian. The Iran midfielder, who hasnt seen much match action this year, took a quick throw in which found Kevin Nolan and the Bolton skipper twisted and turned the Bayern defence to set up Davies who lashed the ball past Kahn for the leveller.

Wanderers could have so easily won it but Kahn got down well at his near post to deny Andranik what would have been one of the most important goals of his career.

In the end Bolton held out for a point and it was an excellent point when you consider the size of Munich amongst the European elite and the fact that Bolton had so many on the sidelines.

The Wanderers now get back to league action on Sunday when they face fellow strugglers Middlesbrough before the international break but for now Gary Megson will be pleased at how his troops have responded yet again.

BOLTON WANDERERS: Ali Al-Habsi, Gavin McCann, Andy O'Brien, Lubomir Michalik, Gerald Cid, Daniel Braaten (Andranik Teimourian), Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Mikel Alonso (Stelios Giannakopoulos), Ricardo Gardner, Kevin Davies

SUBS NOT USED: Gary Speed, Zoltan Harsanyi, James Sinclair, Robert Sissons, Ian Walker (GK)

BAYERN MUNICH: Oliver Kahn, Marcell Jansen, Lucio, Daniel Van Buyten, Christian Lell, Franck Ribery (Toni Kroos), Andreas Ottl, Mark Van Bommel, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Hamit Altinop), Lukas Podolski (Luca Toni), Miroslav Klose

SUBS NOT USED: Ze Roberto, Jan Schlaudraff, Jose Sosa, Michael Rensing (GK)

ATTENDANCE:

66,000

REFEREE:

Jaroslav Jara (Czech Republic)

BOOKED:

Davies (Bolton)

Braaten (Bolton)

Cid (Bolton) 

A.O'Brien (Bolton)

 

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