Europa top, Bundesliga flop. For Schalke and Dortmund, that seems to be the story.
Bayern is laughing all the way to the title, as their rivals stub their toes.
Bayern had a ho-hum win at Augsburg. The hosts fought hard in the Bavarian clash (hard to call it a derby, because a derby implies some rivalry and these clubs aren’t even on the same planet). Well, Augsburg played hard and looked to perhaps steal a point, but ruined it with a handball before half. Once behind, the match was over, as there is no way they are going to come back. Bayern was obviously vastly superior, but wasn’t too interested in pressing too hard, satisfied with routine win.
Dortmund can complain about the ref at least, as they were stunned at home by Wolfsburg. The VWs would have gotten massacred if Magath was still boss, but they’ve at least recovered some dignity. The Neons started out at a furious pace, assaulting the Wolfsburg goal and taking an early lead on Reus’ freekick. Somehow the VWs managed to stave off further disaster and then stunned the champs. Diego put in a penalty when Schmelzer was judged to have handled. Wrong. He used his knee, and to cap it off, Vierinha was offsides. While the Neons were still shocked, Naldo hammered in and all of a sudden the VWs were ahead. Dortmund came out in the 2nd half like they started, all out bombardment. They finally got an equalizer, only to be pegged back by another clever play by Diego, setting up Dost for the stunning winner. Great win for Wolfsburg, perhaps a Befreiungsschlag gegen den Abstieg (“freeing punch against relegation” – hard to translate) , but bitter disappointment for Dortmund.
Schalke at least can’t complain, as they were well beaten by surging Stuttgart and an outstanding Vedad Ibisevic. The Blues defense was just too shaky, and despite some decent moments in attack, Schalke deserved to lose. Hard match, certainly not tiddlywinks, with a couple of red cards in the 2nd half. You don’t need a PhD to guess that the Schalke red was that wanker Jermaine Jones, who can’t go a few games without kicking somebody in the balls. Anyway, good win for Stuttgart, well deserved.
Frankfurt is back on track with a thumping win over Bremen, due to a wild second half.
There was decent action in the first half, but both clubs went all out in the 2nd. Alex Meier once again grabbed a goal for Frankfurt, but Bremen soon equalized. Schwegler put the hosts in front with a long blast, then a defensive lapse gave Frankfurt a two goal lead. Werder tried hard to come back, but Frankfurt weathered the storm and finished off the match in style with an injury time goal.
Nürnberg gets an important win over Düsseldorf. FCN dominated the early goings, and it was Fortuna GK Giefer’s top form that prevented an early rout. Der Club then lost their way, as the guests came out stronger in the 2nd half and all of a sudden Nürnberg looked very shaky. However they were able to stem the collapse and then Feulner put things away in injury time.
Hoffenheim started off engaged under interim coach Frank Kramer, but collapsed once they fell behind. As a result, HSV really didn’t have to do very much to get the points. Both teams were crap, but obviously HSV sucked less. Hoffenheim really needs the winter-break, as they are headed down; the Hoppers have now dropped five straight. HSV is flailing around aimlessly as is their wont recently, but could easily sneak into Europe if they get their act together.
Freiburg had a decent handle on the match against Greuther Fürth, getting a deserved victory. The Briegauer however probably should have taken advantage of their chances to finish off the match, as the Greuther tried mightily in the last minutes, and perhaps should have had a goal. Too bad, you’re going down. Freiburg on the other hand can see a Europaliga spot as a reachable goal.
UPDATE:
Mainz had most of the play, but Gladbach scored the goals. Hanke came on in the 2nd half and quickly scored and then Arango lifted the ball into the net from 45 meters! Otherwise, it was Gladbach’s defense that held the quicker Mainz players in check, who probably deserved better.
Hannover beat down Leverksuen in an entertaining match, despite a difficult pitch. The Aspirins seemed to be the better squad, but kept getting themselves in trouble by conceding penalties. Thus ends Leverkusen’s dream – albeit tiny – of challenging Bayern at the top.
Total attendance 419,315 (avg 46,591), two sell outs
Hamburger SV - TSG Hoffenheim 1899 2:0 (1:0) 47,000
1:0 Rudnevs (27., Diekmeier)
2:0 Rudnevs (74)
Borussia Dortmund - VfL Wolfsburg 2:3 (1:2) 80,645 *
1:0 Reus (6.)
1:1 Diego (36., penalty)
1:2 Naldo (41., Diego)
2:2 Blaszczykowski (61., penalty, Lewandowski)
2:3 Dost (73., Diego)
VfB Stuttgart - FC Schalke 04 3:1 (2:1) 55,588
1:0 Ibisevic (2., Traoré)
1:1 Marica (12., J. Jones)
2:1 Ibisevic (38., penalty, Gentner)
3:1 Ibisevic (61., Holzhauser)
1. FC Nürnberg - Fortuna Düsseldorf 2:0 (1:0) 40,000
1:0 Polter (27., Feulner)
2:0 Feulner (90. + 1, Pekhart)
SC Freiburg - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:0 (1:0) 22,800
1:0 D. Caligiuri (15., Schmid)
FC Augsburg - Bayern München 0:2 (0:1) 30,660 *
0:1 T. Müller (40., penalty)
0:2 Gomez (62., Ribery)
Eintracht Frankfurt - Werder Bremen 4:1 (0:0) 51,000
1:0 Meier (47., Oczipka)
1:1 Petersen (54., Arnautovic)
2:1 Schwegler (62., Rode)
3:1 Aigner (63., Occean)
4:1 Inui (90., S. Jung)
Sunday:
Borussia M'gladbach - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:0 (0:0) 46,622
1:0 Hanke (58., Jantschke)
2:0 Arango (63.)
Hannover 96 - Bayer Leverkusen 3:2 (1:1) 45,800
0:1 Castro (2., L. Bender)
1:1 Huszti (20., penalty, Huszti)
2:1 M. Diouf (57., Schlaudraff)
2:2 Kießling (58., L. Bender)
3:2 Huszti (69., penalty, Huszti)
1 Bayern München 16 13 2 1 43:6 +37 41
2 Bayer Leverkusen 16 9 3 4 30:22 +8 30
3 Borussia Dortmund (M, P) 16 7 6 3 32:19 +13 27
4 Eintracht Frankfurt (N) 16 8 3 5 31:27 +4 27
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5 FC Schalke 04 16 7 4 5 26:22 +4 25
6 VfB Stuttgart 16 7 4 5 20:25 -5 25
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7 Hamburger SV 16 7 3 6 18:18 0 24
8 Borussia M'gladbach 16 6 6 4 24:25 -1 24
9 SC Freiburg 16 6 5 5 21:17 +4 23
10 Hannover 96 16 7 2 7 31:29 +2 23
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 16 7 2 7 21:20 +1 23
12 Werder Bremen 16 6 3 7 27:28 -1 21
13 1. FC Nürnberg 16 5 4 7 16:21 -5 19
14 VfL Wolfsburg 16 5 4 7 17:25 -8 19
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15 Fortuna Düsseldorf (N) 16 4 6 6 18:21 -3 18
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16 1899 Hoffenheim 16 3 3 10 22:38 -16 12
17 FC Augsburg 16 1 5 10 11:28 -17 8
18 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N) 16 1 5 10 10:27 -17 8
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga
