Hertha can hope, but K-town looks dead…Dortmund sends a message to Bayern.
VfL Wolfsburg - Hamburger SV 2:1 (0:0) 30,000
1:0 Mandzukic (46., Dejagah)
1:1 Berg (47., Westermann)
2:1 M. Schäfer (75.)
Bayern München - Hannover 96 2:1 (1:0) 69,000
1:0 Kroos (36., Robben)
2:0 Gomez (68., Kroos)
2:1 Ya Konan (74., M. Diouf)
SC Freiburg - 1. FC Kaiserslautern 2:0 (2:0) 24,000
1:0 Guedé (8., Linksschuss, Freis)
2:0 Makiadi (14., Kopfball, Schuster)
Borussia M'gladbach - 1899 Hoffenheim 1:2 (1:0) 52,796
1:0 Reus (38., Herrmann)
1:1 Roberto Firmino (77.)
1:2 Vukcevic (79., Salihovic)
Werder Bremen - FC Augsburg 1:1 (0:0) 40,208
1:0 Füllkrug (61., Schmitz)
1:1 Verhaegh (90. + 2, Koo)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - Hertha BSC 1:3 (0:1) 33,152
0:1 Ben-Hatira (41., Rukavytsya)
0:2 Ramos (52., Raffael)
1:2 Choupo-Moting (58., Zidan)
1:3 Ramos (69.)
FC Schalke 04 - Bayer Leverkusen 2:0 (1:0) 61,673
1:0 Huntelaar (18., Fuchs)
2:0 Huntelaar (86., Farfan)
Sunday
VfB Stuttgart - 1. FC Nürnberg 1:0 (0:0) 55,800
1:0 Cacau (78., Rechtsschuss, Hajnal)
1. FC Köln - Borussia Dortmund 1:6 (1:1) 50,000
1:0 Novakovic (13., Lanig)
1:1 Piszczek (26., Schmelzer)
1:2 Kagawa (47., Piszczek)
1:3 Lewandowski (52., Blaszczykowski)
1:4 Gündogan (79., Kagawa)
1:5 Kagawa (80., Piszczek)
1:6 Perisic (84., Gündogan)
1 Borussia Dortmund (M) 27 19 5 3 59:17 +42 62
2 Bayern München 27 18 3 6 66:18 +48 57
3 FC Schalke 04 (P) 27 17 2 8 60:34 +26 53
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4 Borussia M'gladbach 27 15 6 6 40:18 +22 51
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5 Bayer Leverkusen 27 11 7 9 39:36 +3 40
6 Werder Bremen 27 11 7 9 41:40 +1 40
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7 VfB Stuttgart 27 11 6 10 44:34 +10 39
8 Hannover 96 27 9 11 7 35:38 -3 38
9 VfL Wolfsburg 27 11 4 12 36:48 -12 37
10 1899 Hoffenheim 27 8 9 10 31:38 -7 33
11 1. FC Nürnberg 27 9 4 14 25:38 -13 31
12 1. FSV Mainz 05 27 7 9 11 39:44 -5 30
13 SC Freiburg 27 7 7 13 35:53 -18 28
14 1. FC Köln 27 8 4 15 34:56 -22 28
15 FC Augsburg (N) 27 5 12 10 28:41 -13 27
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16 Hamburger SV 27 6 9 12 31:50 -19 27
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17 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 27 6 8 13 29:48 -19 26
18 1. FC Kaiserslautern 27 3 11 13 17:38 -21 20
Köln started off brightly enough against leaders Dortmund. Neon GK Roman Weidenfeller couldn’t decide whether to come out or stay put, so Novakovic said “Dankeschön” and headed in. But the Neons weren’t phased, pressed and soon recuperated a tie. Köln remained in the match, with reasonable defense and counterattacks. Dortmund as usual created chances and wasted them, so you might expect more of the same. Nix-da. The Neons came out storming in the 2nd half and Kagawa volleyed in two minutes after restart. This was a sign for all-out attack, and after a nice combo between Kuba and Kagawa, Lewandowski only had to tap in. Now Dortmund was in complete control, and they viciously proceeded to kick Köln’s ass. No more wasting all the chances, and they ran up the score.
Bayern München perhaps didn’t take Hannover seriously, and left top scorer Mario Gomez on the bench to rest, giving Ivica Olic a rare start. As it turns out, Bayern pressed hard, but the 96ers defended well, and it wasn’t until Gomez came in and notched the second that things looked like clear München win. However, Hannover doubled their efforts, pulled a goal back, and with some luck might have equalized. A hard fought struggle, probably deserved win for Bayern, but it wasn’t easy.
Schalke dominated from start to finish against Leverkusen. The Blues were superior in all phases of the match, and it was only a matter of time until breaking through. A couple of headers by Klass-Jan Huntelaar put the Aspirins down. Coupled with Gladbach’s stunning home loss, the Schalkers vault into 3rd place, and maintain an miniscule chance for the title.
Krassimir Balakov started his first match as head coach of Kaiserslautern, and he couldn’t have been very happy with what he saw. In a crucial relegation 6 pointer, Freiburg basically delivered a knockout in the first quarter-hour, and then coasted in front of a packed home crowd. SCF has been battling hard, and they’re getting crucial points. FCK looks crap, and it is pretty hard to envision a scenario in which they stay up.
Gladbach was stunned at home by Hoffenheim. After the disappointment in the Cup, you would think a dose of Hopeless-heim would have been just what the doctor ordered. Indeed, the guests looked confused and without ideas and creativity, and Gladbach just ran up against them, and once again, Marco Reus opened up the scoring. It seemed to be only a matter of time to get another. But then a strange thing happened. The Hoppers grew some balls and counterattacked, and the Gladbachers were so stunned that they fell apart. Apparently Markus Babbel is a fight fan, since his strategy was classic “rope-a-dope”. The Hoppers were fresh and wanted the win, and they deserved it. A critical win for them, since they’ve been sliding into the relegation. Gladbach falls behind Schalke in the auto-qualifier for the Champions.
This was Gladbach’s 500th defeat in the Bundesliga, but only their first home loss of the year.
A good win for Wolfsburg in a rough-around-the-edges northern derby with Hamburg. Both teams looked like losers at times, but overall the VWs probably deserve the victory, as HSV was once again without a clue.
Bremen looked the winner against Augsburg, but they dicked around and gave up an equalizer in injury time. Werder, despite missing several regulars, was inferior in most of the match, but seemed to have things under control. Augsburg largely determined the play, but couldn’t take advantage. However, FCA threw everything forward near the end, and were rewarded with a precious point. Another crap result for Bremen.
Hertha BSC got a huge boost in their hopes of avoiding relegation. After last week’s em-bare-assing performance against Bayern, you might have figured Hertha’s goose was cooked. But Otto Rehagel must still have something in the tank, as he marshalled his troops to perhaps their best away performance of the season. Mainz started brightly, pressing Hertha back, but got increasingly nervous when the Berliners didn’t roll over and play dead. Once Hertha took the lead, they smelled blood, and their counters laid out the confused Mainzers.
Stuttgart struggled against Nürnberg. In fact, the visitors had several decent chances to take the lead in the 1st half. Late in the match, it was the forgotten man, Cacau, who slipped through and gave Stuttgart a lucky victory. This moves VfB into 7th place, which looks like it will mean a Europa-liga spot if they can hold on to it.