Augsburg, Frankfurt share draw which helps neither

Augsburg and Frankfurt drew 1-1 on Sunday in a result which does little to boost the hosts' hopes of Bundesliga survival or the visitors' dreams of European football.

Frankfurt, without keeper Kevin Trapp and winger Filip Kostic due to positive coronavirus tests, took advantage of an Augsburg gift to open the scoring through Daichi Kamada in the 22nd minute.

Niklas Dorsch's careless pass allowed Rafael Borre to release Kamada who did brilliantly to round the keeper and score his second of season under pressure from the retreating defence.

Jesper Lindström hit the post as Frankfurt dominated before Augsburg, who started record signing Ricardo Pepi for the first time, levelled before the break through Michael Gregoritsch. Back-up keeper Diant Ramaj was caught out at the near post as he anticipated a cross.

"It was a good game, I felt we competed out there," Pepi told streaming portal DAZN. "We'll work to do better and win the next game."

Pepi had a shot cleared off the line while Frankfurt, who also threw away a lead last week in losing to Borussia Dortmund, wondered just why they weren't awarded a second half penalty when Reece Oxford clattered Kamada.

Lindstrom also missed a late one-on-one when the winning goal looked certain before Ramaj atoned for his earlier error with a superb injury-time save to deny Florian Niederlechner.

"On the one side we'd like to have won but Augsburg as an opponent were always dangerous," said Frankfurt midfielder Sebastian Rode. "We'll take the point with us."

Frankfurt are eighth, two points and two places off the last automatic European spot, while Augsburg move to safety in 15th.

They avoided falling back into the bottom three as previously second-last Arminia Bielefeld were held 2-2 by bottom club Greuther Fürth, the point enough only to move them above VfB Stuttgart into the play-off place.

A stunning Gonzalo Castro volley denied Fürth a rare win after Jamie Leweling and Havard Nielsen overturned Masaya Okugawa's early opener.

Fürth, with only seven points, still look doomed to relegation while Bielefeld will consider it a missed chance to gain on their more competitive rivals even if they avoided a shocking loss.

"At the end we can be happy with the point," said Castro, who admitted "before the game we wanted to win to give us a bit of breathing space."

Champions Bayern Munich top the table by six points following a 4-0 cruise in Cologne on Saturday.