The battle for promotion has heated up again, as two contenders dropped points, allowing chasing teams to catch up.
It seems pretty safe to bet on Köln going up. The leaders have some points, but more importantly they can win games like this. Tail-end Cottbus was totally ouyplaying them, perhaps hoping to get a desperate win in a last gasp effort to avoid the drop. Indeed, Energie deservedly took the lead, and looked like they might pull it off. But Köln asserted themselves at the end, and Cottbus sealed their own fate with an own goal.
Greuther Fürth also helped themselves out with an important away win in Bochum. This keeps them above the fierce battle for 3rd place and at the same time keeps Bochum in dangerous waters.
Karlsruhe was impressive as they bitch-slapped high-flying Paderborn. KSC was dominate throughout the match, as SCP looked bewildered and could only make lame attempts to bust out. Continued pressure eventually led to Paderborn’s collapse, and KSC leapfrogs into the promotion playoff.
St.Pauli could have benefitted from Paderborn’s slapping, but inside laid an egg. The Paulistas fell behind at FSV Frankfurt early, and despite constant pressure, were unable to score against the Bornheimer. FSV GK Patric Klandt was in top-form, and stopped several promising Pauli chances.
Kaiserslautern is back in the hunt, but they suffered in a tough battle against Sandhausen. In teh 2nd half the hosts began to assert some control, but in the end they needed help to get the win.
Union Berlin missed a good chance to sneak closer. The Berliners were stunned after 3o seconds by Ingolstadt, and then spent the whole game trying to get back in against a stubborn Schanzer defense. In the end they got a penalty in injury time, but they must be kicking themselves for the missed opportunity.
1860 showed what they are capable of as they crushed Aalen. However, it’s unlikely that the Lions will get back into the promotion race. In theory, they’re only a couple of points back, but it practice, they usually start to suck when they get close, and I fully expect that’s what we’ll see again this time.
Bielefeld dominated against a lame Aue side, and probably should have had several goals. However they got the win, which gives them some hope in the relegation battle.
Dresden dominated against Düsseldorf, needing a win to match Bielefeld. Instead they wasted chance after chance to finish the match, and then got caught with their pants down as Fortuna struck in injury time. Dynamo is not in a hopeless position, but time is running out, and they desperately needed those two extra points.
1. FC Kaiserslautern - SV Sandhausen 2:1 (0:1) 24,584
0:1 D. Blum (10., Jovanovic)
1:1 Zoller (60., Idrissou)
2:1 D. Schulz (73., own goal, Dick)
1860 München - VfR Aalen 4:0 (3:0) 14,100
1:0 Y. Stark (20., Ludwig)
2:0 Osako (21., Stoppelkamp)
3:0 Ludwig (37., )
4:0 Stoppelkamp (87., Volz)
1. FC Köln - Energie Cottbus 2:1 (0:0) 42,400
0:1 Sanogo (68., J. Buljat)
1:1 Hector (84., Risse)
2:1 Möhrle (86., own goal, Exslager)
1. FC Union Berlin - FC Ingolstadt 04 1:1 (0:1) 18,412
0:1 P. Groß (1., Cohen)
1:1 Mattuschka (90. + 1, penalty, Brandy)
Arminia Bielefeld - Erzgebirge Aue 1:0 (1:0) 13,079
1:0 Klos (43., Lorenz)
FSV Frankfurt - FC St. Pauli 1:0 (1:0) 11,103
1:0 Leckie (9., M. Görlitz)
Dynamo Dresden - Fortuna Düsseldorf 1:1 (0:0) 27,530
1:0 Ouali (55., Grifo)
1:1 Latka (90. + 2, Liendl)
Karlsruher SC - SC Paderborn 07 4:0 (1:0) 15,601
1:0 Torres (12., Hennings)
2:0 Nazarov (69., Kempe)
3:0 Nazarov (84., direct freekick)
4:0 van der Biezen (87., Kempe)
Monday:
VfL Bochum - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:2 (0:1) 10,833
0:1 Brosinski (41., direct freekick)
0:2 Azemi (90. + 1, Trinks)
1 1. FC Köln 24 13 8 3 38:15 +23 47
2 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (A) 24 13 4 7 43:28 +15 43
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3 Karlsruher SC (N) 24 10 9 5 34:21 +13 39
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4 SC Paderborn 07 24 11 6 7 43:39 +4 39
5 FC St. Pauli 24 11 5 8 32:29 +3 38
6 1. FC Kaiserslautern 24 11 4 9 37:26 +11 37
7 1. FC Union Berlin 24 10 7 7 36:30 +6 37
8 1860 München 24 9 7 8 25:26 -1 34
9 Fortuna Düsseldorf (A) 24 8 8 8 26:32 -6 32
10 SV Sandhausen 24 8 7 9 20:22 -2 31
11 VfR Aalen 24 8 7 9 25:30 -5 31
12 FSV Frankfurt 24 8 6 10 35:37 -2 30
13 FC Ingolstadt 04 24 8 6 10 25:29 -4 30
14 Erzgebirge Aue 24 8 5 11 29:37 -8 29
15 VfL Bochum 24 7 6 11 21:28 -7 27
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16 Arminia Bielefeld (N) 24 7 4 13 30:46 -16 25
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17 Dynamo Dresden 24 4 12 8 25:36 -11 24
18 Energie Cottbus 24 4 5 15 27:40 -13 17
1st line: Promotion to Bundesliga
2nd line: Playoff with 16th Bundesliga
3rd line: Playoff with no.3 of 3.Liga
4th line: Relegation to 3.Liga