Saturday, November 24, 2007

Bayern stay on top as big guns fire

The former FC Bayern München coach Felix Magath left Bavaria without a point on Saturday as his VfL Wolfsburg side were beaten 2-1 by the Bundesliga leaders.

Influential Ribéry
Franck Ribéry created the opener for Miroslav Klose in the 35th minute, the Germany striker making no mistake from a neat pass, before the Frenchman combined with Hamit Altıntop to double the advantage five minutes after half-time. Bayern had endured a tough week off the pitch, and they were almost made to suffer on it after Ashkan Dejagah reduced arrears for the visitors on 72 minutes. Still, Ottmar Hitzfeld was relieved to see his charges hold on to move on to 31 points, one more than Werder Bremen following their 2-0 win at the bottom club FC Energie Cottbus.


Champions in form
Diego opened the scoring for Bremen from the penalty spot after 63 minutes, although the visitors were made to fight for three points before Mosquera wrapped them up with an 83rd-minute strike. In addition to Bremen, VfB Stuttgart and FC Schalke 04 warmed-up for their return to UEFA Champions League action this week by recording away wins. The champions won 4-1 at Eintracht Frankfurt to make it four Bundesliga victories in succession, while Kevin Kuranyi returned from injury to score twice in Schalke's 3-2 win at Hannover 96.

No draws
On a day of no draws in the German top flight, Bayer 04 Leverkusen were the biggest winners as they beat MSV Duisburg 4-1 to close to within two points of fourth-placed Karlsruher SC, 2-1 winners against Hertha BSC Berlin on Friday. VfL Bochum 1848 also enjoyed a three-goal winning margin, Marcin Mieciel (2) and Christoph Dabrowski finding the net without reply against DSC Arminia Bielefeld. Hamburger SV meet FC Hansa Rostock and 1. FC Nürnberg tackle BV Borussia Dortmund on Sunday.

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