Leverkusen and Bayern suffer title setbacks
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Article summary
There was drama aplenty in the Bundesliga this weekend, with second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen losing to 1. FC Nürnberg and FC Bayern München being shocked by 1. FC Köln.
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Bayer 04 Leverkusen's hopes of catching Borussia Dortmund at the Bundesliga summit received a blow as they lost 1-0 at 1. FC Nürnberg on a day when FC Bayern München were the victims of a dramatic comeback.
Leverkusen were hoping to cut Dormund's lead to nine points after the leaders' goalless draw with FC Schalke 04 on Friday, but were unable to find a way through a Nürnberg team who had goalscorer Christian Eigler (60) dismissed late on.
Bayern, meanwhile, were on course for an eighth victory in their last nine matches in all competitions following efforts from Mario Gomez (22) and Hamit Altıntop (43) at 1. FC Köln. Christian Clemens began the fightback in the 55th minute, before Milivoje Novakovič struck twice to seal an unlikely win for 16th-placed Köln.
SV Werder Bremen drew 1-1 with 1. FSV Mainz 05 − who leapfrog Bayern into third as a result − and Hannover 96 climbed to fourth courtesy of a 1-0 defeat of VfL Wolfsburg. Elsewhere, Vedad Ibišević (62) scored the decisive goal as TSG 1899 Hoffenheim overcame 1. FC Kaiserslautern 3-2 despite having debutant Edson Braafheid (79) sent off.
VfB Stuttgart also came from two down to win the late fixture, a meeting of the bottom two, and leave VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach three points adrift at the foot of the table. Sunday's derby between Hamburger SV and FC St Pauli was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch, while SC Freiburg's meeting with Eintracht Frankfurt finished 0-0.
Results
