Bayern Munich maintained their ten point lead over Werder Bremen with an easy 2-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld. Werder got the better of Hamburg in the Nord-derby, while Wolfsburg came out on top in a five-goal thriller against Frankfurt.
Down at the bottom, Nürnberg have done their survival hopes a world of good with a 2-0 home win over fellow strugglers Duisburg. Bayer Leverkusen suffered their second successive loss to drift further away from the Uefa Cup places.
Bayern Munich 2-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Hamburg 0-1 Werder Bremen
Nürnberg 2-0 Duisburg
Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 Hertha Berlin
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-3 Wolfsburg
Bayern Munich 2-0 Arminia Bielefeld
Bayern swept to a rather easy win over struggling Arminia Bielefeld at the Allianz Arena to give their fans an opportunity to celebrate Sunday’s clinching of the Championship.
The opening goal for the newly crowned Bundesliga champions arrived after 26 minutes and for once it was Luca Toni who turned provider.
Seconds after Bielefeld had hit the Bayern crossbar; Toni latched onto a long clearance and fended off the challenge before playing the ball into the run of Franck Ribéry. The Frenchman’s shot squirmed through the legs of Rowan Fernandez to hand the Bavarians the lead.
Just over 60 seconds after the start of the second half Bayern scored their second of the evening. Ribéry surged forward, shaking off a couple of Bielefeld challenges, before slipping the ball into Lukas Podolski. The German international fired in a clinical left-footed shot to take his season’s tally to three.
The win sees Bayern keep up their impressive defensive record of having conceded just 18 goals so far and puts Bielefeld in more trouble at the bottom with Nürnberg closing the gap.
Hamburg 0-1 Werder Bremen
Werder Bremen emerged triumphant from the Nord-derby against Hamburg with a solitary second half goal from Hugo Almeida decisive.
A feisty first half ended goalless, but Werder accumulated four yellow cards as Hamburg struggled to make their slight dominance count. They were made to pay early in the second half with Werder scoring five minutes into the second half.
Markus Rosenberg won the ball on the edge of the box from Reinhardt and laid it off to strike partner Hugo Almeida. The Portuguese striker hit an unstoppable shot past Frank Rost into the right hand corner to open the scoring.
Nürnberg 2-0 Duisburg
Nürnberg have given themselves a massive boost in the bid to stay up with an important home win over fellow strugglers Duisburg.
After a cautious opening the home side calmed their nerves with a goal from Charisteas on 10 minutes. With the Duisburg defence asleep, Misimovic fed the Greek striker with a quick throw-in. He sped past Willi before firing in a shot which took a deflection off of Avalos to give Tom Starke no chance.
The crowd inside the easycredit Stadion were given a further boost on 32 minutes with Pinola grabbing the second for the home side. Given far too much space and time, Engelhardt found Jan Koller on the edge of the box. The giant Czech played onto the Argentine, who fired in a powerful shot into the top left hand corner.
The win doesn’t see Nürnberg out of the bottom three, but it does give them hope of avoiding the dreaded drop.
Bayer Leverkusen 1-2 Hertha Berlin
Hertha Berlin grabbed a 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen at the Bay-Arena to inflict a severe blow to the Werkself’s hopes of European qualification.
The capital club got their noses in front after 26 minutes with Marko Pantelic rather predictably the scorer. The lead came from nothing as Raffael dribbled goalwards. He lost control, but fortunately for Hertha the ball fell to Pantelic, who fired into the corner of Adler’s goal to hand the visitors the lead.
Lucien Favre’s team then doubled their lead at the Bay-Arena from the penalty spot on 68 minutes. Forward Lukasz Piszczek was felled by Rene Adler in full flight and the referee had no option but to point to the spot. Midfielder Sofian Chahed converted the penalty to put Hertha in control.
A last minute goal from Lukas Sinkiewicz proved too little, too late to save Bayer from their second successive Bundesliga defeat.
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-3 Wolfsburg
There were five goals at the Commerzbank Arena, but it was Felix Magath. who left the happier of the two trainers after watching his side win 3-2.
The ‘Wölfe’ got off to the perfect start at the Commerzbank Arena with a goal after just four minutes. Marcelinho whipped in a free kick into the area where fellow Brazilian Grafite was on hand to head home the opener.
Friedhelm Funkel’s side were back on level terms though on 22 minutes thanks to a penalty from Ioannis Amanatidis. Simunek was adjudged to have felled fellow Mantzios in the area, and Amanatidis stepped up to stroke the resulting spot-kick past Benaglio in the Wolfsburg goal.
Six minutes later however and the visitors were back in front. A fine passing move was finished with Marcel Schäfer firing past Pröll with a left-footed shot. It remained 2-1 to the guests until just past the hour mark when the ‘Adler’ equalised for a second time.
Inamoto won possession in midfield and played a great ball through to Amanatidis. The Greek striker tried to go around Benaglio, but inadvertently played the ball to Weissenberger, who drilled in a left foot shot to make it 2-2.
The fifth goal of the game arrived with 11 minutes left and it was the away side who took the lead for the third time in the game. Krzynowek left two Frankfurt defenders standing with a powerful run before putting a low ball into the middle. Edin Dzeko fired home even though there was a strong hint of offside.
source: goal.com
