Darmstadt underlined their strength as they battled leaders Ingolstadt to a draw.
Karlsruhe dominated against FSV Frankfurt, leaving the visitors no chance as they blasted them off the field.
Braunschweig won a hard-fought match at Heidenheim to remain on pace, and push FCH out of any prospects.
Kaiserslautern dominated afgainst Sanhausen, but the guests attempted to catenaccio their way to a point. Luckily, it didn’t pay off, and FCK scored a late goal to keep pace with the top.
Nürnberg and Greuther Fürth faced off in a local derby, with FCN having a slight edge throughout most of the match. However, it wasn’t really enough to translate into a win, so a draw seems a fair result.
St.Pauli gave new coach Ewald Lienen a huge Xmas present, a win in a critical relegation battle against Aalen. It’s not enough to lift the Hamburgers from the dropzone, but it does give them hope and certainly based on their performance, they should have a chance of recovering.
Bochum sucked and were lucky to get a draw against feeble Aue. They had no ideas and left it until the last second to salavage a point. Theeir big news was that after firing Peter Neururer, the board went out and hired Gertjan Verbeek, which makes no sense. His claim to fame is to lead Nürnberg firmly down the path of relegation from the Bundesliga. But perhaps Bochum is intending to rebuild in the 3.Liga, so therefore he might be a good choice.
Leipzig is unlikely to feature in the Bundesliga next season, despite Red Bull money. The Rasenballers demonstrated why as they basically sucked against a sucky team, 1860. I suppose thats a good thing, because the idea of RedBull buying their way up leaves a bad taste in everybody’s mouth. I suppose if they had quietly sponsored a Leipzig team instead of trying to blatantly advertise football as a sideshow, I wouldn’t mind too much. God knows that the east deserves a Bundesliga side, and Leipzig would be a good candidate. But RedBulls?, Nein, Danke.
Total attendance: 202,899 (avg 22,544)
Karlsruher SC - FSV Frankfurt 4:1 (2:0) 12,117 1:0 Hennings (16., Meffert) 2:0 Yabo (20., Torres) 3:0 Hennings (51.) 4:0 Nazarov (66., penalty, Hennings) 4:1 Aoudia (72., M. Engels) Fortuna Düsseldorf - 1. FC Union Berlin 1:0 (0:0) 28,256 1:0 Bolly (89., Golley) 1. FC Heidenheim - Eintracht Braunschweig 0:1 (0:0) 11,800 0:1 Ryu (61., Kessel) 1. FC Nürnberg - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 0:0 (0:0) 47,501 FC St. Pauli - VfR Aalen 3:1 (1:0) 21,712 1:0 Verhoek (35., L. Sobiech) 2:0 Barth (50., own goal, Daube) 3:0 Thy (81., Trybull) 3:1 Kaufmann (83., J. Gjasula) 1. FC Kaiserslautern - SV Sandhausen 1:0 (0:0) 27,818 1:0 P. Hofmann (73., Matmour) VfL Bochum - Erzgebirge Aue 1:1 (0:1) 12,025 0:1 Klingbeil (33., Diring) 1:1 Weis (90., Terodde) SV Darmstadt 98 - FC Ingolstadt 04 2:2 (1:2) 14,300 1:0 Behrens (7., Sulu) 1:1 P. Groß (20., direct free kick) 1:2 Lex (40., Leckie) 2:2 Heller (54., Ivana) RasenBall Leipzig - 1860 München 1:1 (1:0) 27,370 1:0 Poulsen (29., Khedira) 1:1 Okotie (86., Mulic) 1 FC Ingolstadt 04 19 11 7 1 32:14 +18 40 2 Karlsruher SC 19 9 6 4 28:16 +12 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 SV Darmstadt 98 (N) 19 8 9 2 25:15 +10 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Eintracht Braunschweig (A) 19 10 3 6 28:20 +8 33 5 1. FC Kaiserslautern 19 8 8 3 27:19 +8 32 6 Fortuna Düsseldorf 19 8 7 4 29:22 +7 31 7 RasenBallsport Leipzig (N) 19 7 8 4 22:12 +10 29 8 1. FC Nürnberg (A) 19 8 3 8 21:28 -7 27 9 1. FC Heidenheim (N) 19 6 7 6 28:20 +8 25 10 1. FC Union Berlin 19 6 6 7 22:29 -7 24 11 VfL Bochum 19 4 11 4 28:28 0 23 12 SpVgg Greuther Fürth 19 5 8 6 22:23 -1 23 13 FSV Frankfurt 19 6 3 10 24:33 -9 21 14 SV Sandhausen 19 5 5 9 15:25 -10 20 15 1860 München 19 4 5 10 24:31 -7 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 VfR Aalen 19 4 5 10 15:25 -10 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 FC St. Pauli 19 4 4 11 22:39 -17 16 18 Erzgebirge Aue 19 3 5 11 16:29 -13 14 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 A = Absteiger just relegated N = Neuling just promoted