Hamburg put themselves back in the Bundesliga title race on Sunday with a 2-0 win over Energie Cottbus to join the three-strong pack chasing leaders Hertha Berlin.
Two goals in seven first-half minutes from Croatia striker Ivica Olic and a free-kick by Germany winger Piotr Trochowski mean Hamburg finish the weekend fourth, but level on 45 points with second-placed Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg with Hertha on 49 points.
“That was a hard-earned win, it wasn’t pretty, but it was important for us,” Hamburg coach Martin Jol said.
Olic struck with a header on 32 minutes, which gave Cottbus goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel no chance before Trochowski caught Tremmel out with a freekick from 22m out on 39 minutes to keep Cottbus in the bottom three.
Hamburg will be without Croatian striker Mladen Petric for a few weeks after he damaged a thigh muscle in the game.
“I took a knock to the muscle and I will have to sit out for the next two or three weeks,” said Petric, who has scored 10 goals this season.
Werder Bremen picked up their first league win of the year when they humbled Stuttgart 4-0 and inflicted the first defeat in 10 games for VfB coach Markus Babbel as Bremen’s Swedish striker Markus Rosenberg struck twice.
On Saturday, Hertha Berlin’s hot-shot striker Andrei Voronin scored his eighth goal in six games to keep the leaders four points clear at the top with a 1-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
The 29-year-old, on loan from Premier League side Liverpool, followed up last week’s hat-trick against Energie Cottbus with a goal on 50 minutes which contained some good fortune.
After firing his shot at Leverkusen’s Germany goalkeeper Rene Adler, the ball came off the keeper’s outstretched leg, only to bounce off Voronin’s chest into the empty net.
After their Champions League heroics in midweek, when they sealed a 12-1 aggregate win over Sporting Lisbon, Bayern Munich are second, as they had few problems beating 10-man Bochum 3-0 away from home.
But the win has cost Bayern the services of Germany striker Miroslav Klose, who will miss the next two weeks after having ankle surgery on Sunday for damaged ligaments.
Hoffenheim drop to fifth in the table and have now gone six games without a win after they were held to a 1-1 draw at midtable Eintracht Frankfurt.
There was a battle royal at Hanover as the home side drew 4-4 with Borussia Dortmund, while Borussia Moechengladbach picked up their third win in four games to ease their relegation worries with a 4-2 win at Cologne.
German Bundesliga
Team | P | GD | Pts | |
1 | Hertha Berlin | 24 | 12 | 49 |
2 | Bayern Munich | 24 | 21 | 45 |
3 | Wolfsburg | 24 | 18 | 45 |
4 | Hamburg | 24 | 1 | 45 |
5 | TSG Hoffenheim | 24 | 18 | 43 |
6 | VfB Stuttgart | 24 | 6 | 39 |
7 | Bayer Leverkusen | 24 | 13 | 37 |
8 | Schalke 04 | 24 | 8 | 37 |
9 | Borussia Dortmund | 24 | 5 | 34 |
10 | Werder Bremen | 24 | 12 | 32 |
11 | Cologne | 24 | -8 | 29 |
12 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 24 | -9 | 25 |
13 | Hannover 96 | 24 | -17 | 25 |
14 | Arminia Bielefeld | 24 | -12 | 24 |
15 | VfL Bochum | 24 | -12 | 22 |
16 | Borussia M’gladbach | 24 | -14 | 22 |
17 | Cottbus | 24 | -21 | 20 |
18 | Karlsruhe | 24 | -23 | 17 |
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
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