Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen were held 0-0 at second-placed Hamburg on Saturday while Bayern Munich moved up to fifth as hot-shot midfielder Thomas Mueller helped seal a 2-1 win at Freiburg.
The stalemate at Hamburg’s HSH Nordbank Arena left the top two locked on 21 points with Bayer top by virtue of goal difference.
“We came here to get points and we could have won it at the end,” Leverkusen defender Sami Hyypia said. “Maybe we could have done more with the ball, Hamburg had their chances, but from our point of view, we defended well.”
Earlier, Mueller, who has made a name for himself with six goals in all competitions this season, was set up by Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni to put Bayern on the path to victory.
Toni’s effort on goal was deflected into the path of Mueller and the midfielder slammed home his shot on 42 minutes and made sure of the three points when Freiburg’s South Korean defender Cha Du-ri scored an own goal.
Under pressure from Mueller, Cha attempted to pass back to his goalkeeper but could only watch as the ball rolled into his own net on 68 minutes.
Freiburg hit a consolation goal in injury time when striker Stefan Reisinger met a cross from striker Mohamadou Idrissou.
Schalke are third after they sealed a 2-1 win over Stuttgart.
Cacau equalized for Stuttgart on 73 minutes after Schalke midfielder Ivan Rakitic had put the Royal Blues ahead in the first-half.
Kevin Kuranyi scored the winner in the 76th minute.
Werder Bremen are fourth after they sealed a 2-0 win over Hoffenheim with goalkeeper Tim Wiese saving a first-half penalty from Carlos Eduardo after only 14 minutes.
Both goals came just moments later in the first half as Claudio Pizarro put his side ahead with a header on 18 minutes before Per Mertesacker added a second on 22 minutes.
Cologne picked up three more valuable points to pull away from the bottom three and up to 14th after their 1-0 win at home to Mainz while Eintracht Frankfurt beat Hanover 2-1.
Hertha Berlin remain rooted to the bottom, and are now five points from safety, as they lost 3-0 at Nuremberg.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
RSS