Struggling Bochum snatch 1-1

Koji Miyoshi scored an 89th minute goal to give strugglers VfL Bochum a 1-1 draw against visiting champions Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Leverkusen looked to be labouring to a 1-0 win when Miyoshi struck from close range to level to give new Bochum coach Dieter Hecking a successful start to his quest to turn their season around.

It was a third straight draw in the league and fifth in the last six league games for Leverkusen and just the second point in 10 matches for Bochum.

Patrik Schick had bagged Leverkusen’s lead after he was sent through by Florian Wirtz with a superb ball and then threaded it through the legs of the Bochum goalkeeper, saw it hit the post and roll in for an 18th minute lead.

Bochum were by no means overrun, working hard in defence to shut down spaces but lacked more clinical finish up front until the late equaliser.

“It is the same feeling as against (Holstein) Kiel,” Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso told a press conference.

“We again could not finish the game with a win and conceded before the end an equaliser. We have to do that better. We have to keep working on that and learn to handle it and secure the three points.”

Leverkusen had squandered a two-goal lead against Holstein Kiel last month, conceding two goals to settle for a 2-2 draw.

“Bochum were disciplined at the back and we did not do well in the last third of the pitch,” Alonso said. “We just were not good enough.”

The result left Leverkusen, who lost 4-0 at Liverpool in the Champions League, in fourth place on 17 points, nine off leaders Bayern Munich.