Round 24, Mar 6-7
Bayern had a surprisingly tough time at Hannover. The 96ers were inspired, unlike their recent outings. They took the lead, and although Xabi Alonso curledin a freekick for the equalizer, Hannover was by no means done.
However Bayern excerted pressure and got a somewhat lucky penalty. Lewandowski got kicked in the face by marcelo, but it was a diving header, which didn’t seem like much of a foul, especially since it looked after the fact. But the penalty proved decisive, and a few minutes later Ribery zipped past the defender and lifted a perfecet cross for Müller to head home.
Schalke gave a decent performance against Hoffenheim, dominating most of the match and finishing nicely. They had been sucking recently, but this certainly helps right the ship.
Augsburg got a big win against in-form Wolfsburg. The Fuggers had a discplined game plan to neutralize the VW attack, and it worked to perfection, grabbing a win on a penalty rebound. This puts FCA back in solid hunt for a Euro spot. The Wolfsburgers shouldn’t be too worried, as they pretty much have 2nd place wrapped up. The main issue is whether the Augsburg win can be repeated by other clubs.
Stuttgart met Berlin in a relegation battle, and neither side did anything to suggest that they aren’t where they belong. Hertha did squat, basically trying to hold a draw, and Stuttgart, although pressing, was too incompetent to do anything to change the result.
Freiburg remains in serious trouble as they lost at home to Bremen. SCF was engaged and had a few chances, but Werder was the cleverer side and probably deserved the win.
HSV is desperate and were ordered to fight for every milimeter against recovered Dortmund. Indeed, the Hamburgers certainly went about their business in violent fashion, kicking anything that moved, ganing a half-dozen yellows, and especially lucky that Behrami didn’t get his ass tossed. (Zinnbauer realized that the Swiss international was acting like a rabid animal and pulled him after an hour so HSV wouldn’t be down a man.) Meanwhile, although dominating the match, the Neons were unable to break down the HSV defense, and the times they got through, veteran GK Drobny was on point.
Gladbach probably threw away a win at Mainz. They were the better side and had grabbed a two goal lead. To their credit, mainz dodn’t give up and launched desperate attacks to try and get back. They manged to do so in a few minutes. First Gk Yann Sommer was caught flat footed on Tobias Geis direct freekick, and then the Gladbach defense couldn’t deal with a ping-pong ball, so Okazaki courageously jumped up and headed in the equalizer.
Köln got a nice win to remain above the relegation mire. But they got a lot of help from Frankfurt, who looked horrible on defense, making a lot of bone-head mistakes. The home side merely took advantage of the gifts to get the important win.
Paderborn was holding it’s own against Leverkusen, who were somewhat disappointing. However when the Aspirins took the lead, the hosts fell apart and ended up with a clear Bayer win, which didn’t really reflect the match.
Total attendance 363,653 (avg 40,406), 95.3% capacity, sellouts in Hannover, Freiburg, Hamburg, Mainz, Köln
VfB Stuttgart - Hertha BSC 0:0 (0:0) 45,420
FC Schalke 04 - TSG Hoffenheim 3:1 (2:0) 60,607
1:0 Fuchs (12., Höger)
2:0 M. Meyer (41., Choupo-Moting)
3:0 M. Meyer (53., Choupo-Moting)
3:1 Volland (73., Szalai)
FC Augsburg - VfL Wolfsburg 1:0 (0:0) 28,721
1:0 Kohr (63., To. Werner)
Hannover 96 - Bayern München 1:3 (1:1) 49,000 *
1:0 Kiyotake (25., Briand)
1:1 Xabi Alonso (28., direct freekick)
1:2 T. Müller (61., penalty, Lewandowski)
1:3 T. Müller (72., Ribery)
SC Freiburg - Werer Bremen 0:1 (0:1) 24,000 *
0:1 di Santo (35., Öztunali)
Hamburger SV - Borussia Dortmund 0:0 (0:0) 57,000 *
1. FSV Mainz 05 - Bor. Mönchengladbach 2:2 (0:1) 34,000 *
0:1 Raffael (27., Traoré)
0:2 Raffael (67., LF. Johnson)
1:2 Geis (73., direct free kick)
2:2 Okazaki (77., Bell)
1. FC Köln - Eintracht Frankfurt 4:2 (1:0) 50,000 *
1:0 Deyverson (28., Horn)
1:1 Meier (58.)
2:1 Risse (72., Vogt)
3:1 Osako (79., Ujah)
4:1 Ujah (82., Risse)
4:2 Meier (90. + 3, penalty, Seferovic)
SC Paderborn 07 - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0:3 (0:0) 14,905
0:1 K. Papadopoulos (73., Castro)
0:2 Son (84., astro)
0:3 Son (90. + 3)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 24 19 4 1 66:11 +55 61
2 VfL Wolfsburg 24 15 5 4 53:28 +25 50
3 Bor. Mönchengladbach 24 11 8 5 33:20 +13 41
4 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 24 10 9 5 40:29 +11 39
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5 FC Schalke 04 24 11 5 8 35:28 +7 38
6 FC Augsburg 24 12 2 10 33:30 +3 38
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7 TSG Hoffenheim 24 9 6 9 37:38 -1 33
8 Werder Bremen 24 9 6 9 40:49 -9 33
9 Eintracht Frankfurt 24 8 7 9 44:49 -5 31
10 Borussia Dortmund 24 8 5 11 31:31 0 29
11 1. FC Köln (N) 24 7 7 10 25:31 -6 28
12 Hannover 96 24 7 6 11 27:37 -10 27
13 1. FSV Mainz 05 24 5 11 8 32:35 -3 26
14 Hertha BSC Berlin 24 7 4 13 28:42 -14 25
15 Hamburger SV 24 6 7 11 16:33 -17 25
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16 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 24 5 8 11 23:46 -23 23
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17 SC Freiburg 24 4 10 10 24:33 -9 22
18 VfB Stuttgart 24 4 8 12 24:41 -17 20
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted