Hamburg 0-1 Schalke
Caretaker trainer Mike Büskens and Youri Mulder got the better of their former boss Huub Stevens as Schalke beat Hamburg 1-0 thanks to an early goal from in-form Kevin Kuranyi.
Schalke made the dream start in front of a sell-out crowd at the HSH Nordbank Arena with a goal after just two minutes. Albert Streit was allowed unimpeded down the right and his cross found Kevin Kuranyi unmarked, who headed past Frank Rost with relative ease.
Five minutes later and Altintop found himself one-on-one with Frank Rost. He lofted the ball over the keeper, but also over the goal and the danger passed. The home side had the better of the rest of the half, but their goalless run continued.
Much as HSV tried, they couldn’t find a way back and went down to another defeat which will have all but ended their hopes of Champions league football next season.
Karlsruhe 3-3 Werder Bremen
A superb game of attacking football at the Wildparkstadion, the home side will be the happier of the two sides after securing a point against a dominant Werder Bremen.
The visitors wasted numerous big chances, while KSC took theirs with ice cool precision to earn their point.
The home side took a surprise lead on 15 minutes through Sebastian Freis after Werder had dominated the opening stages. The away side were busy claiming offside when Hajnal played Freis through on goal, and the midfielder kept his nerve before coolly slotting past Tim Wiese.
Werder duly got themselves back on level terms after 23 minutes with Diego getting his name on the score sheet. Tim Borowski came into the area only to see his shot blocked by Timm, but the Brazilian was on hand to hammer the loose ball into the goal to equalise.
An end to end game then produced a third first half goal on 29 minutes and it was the visitors who grabbed it. Borowski passed to Özil, who let fly with a first-time shot which flew past Markus Miller and into the back of the Karlsruhe net.
The second half was to prove just as exciting and the home side got themselves back level on the hour mark with Freis bagging his second with an unbelievable goal.
He ran half the length of the pitch, and beat three defenders before firing into the net past Wiese. The game was then turned on it’s head when on 67 minutes Karlsruhe went ahead for the second time in the game.
Iashvili crossed from the left wing with a pinpoint ball to Kapllani, who fired past Wiese with his right foot to score his first-ever Bundesliga goal.
Werder refused to give up and were rewarded four minutes from time when Boubacar Sanogo got on the end of a lofted pass from Diego and only had to apply the finishing touch at the far post.
Nürnberg 2-2 Arminia Bielefeld
Nürnberg let slip a two-goal lead at home to Bielefeld to give up the chance of escaping the relegation zone.
The home side took the lead on 29 minutes when Marek Mintal and Jan Koller combined well in the penalty area, before the Slovak fired in a low shot into the left-hand corner to fire up the hopes of the home fans.
Those survival hopes were stoked up even further ten minutes later when Ivan Saenko latched onto a superb 40 meter long pass from Engelhardt following a Bielefeld corner and the Russian smashed the ball past a helpless Rowan Fernandez.
The away side however grabbed a goal back early in the second half when Wichniarek received the ball from substitute Zuma and beat Daniel Klewer with a right-foot shot.
Nürnberg then allowed the lead to slip from their hands on the hour mark when they allowed Bollmann to get his head on the end of a Marx cross to nod in and make it 2-2.
Energie Cottbus 2-1 Hansa Rostock
A second half fight back from Cottbus secured a vital win against fellow relegation candidates Hansa Rostock.
Poor defending from the home side lead to the opening goal for the visitors. The ball was cleared from the area after a moment of Hansa pressure, when Angelov then played the ball backwards. Before Tremmel could react to the pass, Cvetkovic had nipped in and fired past the unlucky keeper.
Minutes later Hansa had to clear the ball off the line after da Silva had headed a Skela corner goalwards. Things then went from bad to worse for the home side when Igor Mitreski was booked twice within the space of eight minutes and the defender was sent off.
It took until the 82nd minute for ten-man Energie to get the equaliser and it came via a Skela cross. After seeing his corner cleared, he crossed again and found Timo Rost, who headed in.
Then right at the death the home scored the winner. Skela sent the ball goalwards, Rangelov won his aerial duel with Orestes, thumping his header past a helpless Wächter for a dramatic end to the game.
Hannover 2-2 Hertha Berlin
It was a game of two halves between Hannover and Hertha Berlin with the home side scoring twice in the first half, with the visitors grabbing two in the second.
An own goal from von Steve von Bergen brought Hannover the opening goal at the AWD Arena. Szabolcs Huszti took control of the ball before passing to Bruggink. The Dutch midfielder spotted Mike Hanke who shot but saw a huge deflection from the defender take the ball into the net.
With Hertha still trying to recover from the first goal Hannover grabbed a second on 26 minutes through Stajner. A communication problem between Drobny and Simunic saw the defender head past the keeper and Stajner just waltzed through to poke into the empty net.
Ten minutes into the second half though and the visitors were given a way back into the game from the penalty spot after handball from Ismael. Midfielder Sofian Chahed made no mistake from the spot kick to make it 2-1.
The capital club’s recovery was complete on 66 minutes when Lukasz Piszczek grabbed the equaliser when firing in superbly after a corner.
Bochum 1-1 Duisburg
In a good quality Bundesliga game, the points were shared. Duisburg were for long periods the better side and took a deserved lead on 26 minutes when Niculescu fired in a superb direct free kick.
However a late equaliser from Stanislav Sestak in the 84th minute ruined their day and prevented them taking three vital points in their bid for survival.
source: goal.com
