Bundesliga - Week 25
Posted by Pete in Bundesliga | 14 March 2006
Whoops...what with Ballack dithering and the team going out of the Champions League, Bayern have taken their eye off the league somewhat. A 0:0 away at Wolfsburg on Saturday and Hamburg's 3:0 win at Kaiserslautern means that Bayern's lead has been cut to 6 points. This wouldn't necessarily be too much of a problem, but in the 9 remaining games they are yet to play Bremen, Schalke and Dortmund, all games that could provide a bit tricky. On the other hand, they also have to play the bottom four of Duisburg, Cologne, Mainz 05 and Kaiserslautern though so Oli and co shouldn't start panicking just yet. Although it would be fun for everyone else if they did.
However, the weekend's two real standout results were Hertha's shock 3:0 win in Bremen and the crucial win for Nuremberg at Cologne. Hertha seemed to have realised that UEFA Cup football would still be possible if they pulled their collective fingers out. And they did. From the very beginning they were the dominant team and were unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty in the 18th minute when Tim "Butterfingers" Wiese brought Marcelinho down in the box. Although Bremen had a few chances early on in the second half, after Boateng headed the Berliners into the lead, Bremen simply fell apart. All in all, a miserable day for the Hanseaten who slipped to fourth place and, more importantly, out of the Champions League positions.
At the same time, Cologne once again blew another one of their chances of moving off the bottom. Although the game against Nuremberg was close, Cologne were in trouble early on. A late tackle in the box by Mr Popular 2003 aka Alpay (remember him?) meant that Vittek was on his way to scoring a first half hattrick within 6 minutes. Zivkovic got a goal back for Cologne in the 27th minute, but by that point they were already 3:0 behind.
The second half was equally as enthralling. Saenko made it 4:1 to the Franken, but two goals in 2 minutes meant that Cologne were almost back in the game with thirty minutes to go. That was as far as it went though. Lell's yellow-red with ten minutes to go meant that Cologne were forced to see the game out with 10 men and the game ended 3:4. Nuremberg moved three points clear of the relegation zone, while Cologne remain where they've been for some time now.
