Hoffenheim 0-1 Berlin
Bayern 0-1 Schalke
Hannover 2-1 Cologne
Stuttgart 2-0 Eintracht
Bremen 3-2 Bochum
Dortmund 2-0 Hamburg
Leverkusen 0-1 Karlsruhe
Monchengladbach 1-1 Arminia
Energie 2-0 Wolfsburg
It had to end at some point and now it has. After weeks and months of being utterly unconvincing against sides lower down the league table and copping stuffings from anyone even halfway decent, Bayern have dismissed Jurgen Klinsmann. It follows a home defeat to Schalke. Halil Altintop won the battle of the identical twins, getting the goal that condemned Hamit's Bayern to defeat. The Gelsenkirchen side had chances to add to their lead, but contrived to miss a load and bring the best out of Hans-Jorg Butt in the Bayern goal, though they ended up geing grateful to Orlando Engelaar missing his own goal by... that much towards the end. The writing was on the wall for Klinsi some time ago. Tactically inept, his one idea when things are going badly is to being on Tim Borowski. He's managed to turn the best German qualified striker there is - Lukas Podolski - into a shadow of himself and force him out and back to Cologne. When a mid-season crisis saw him need new blood, he went and got...... Landon Donovan, presumably using his wide contact network in California. Were it not for the continued, impish genius of Franck Ribéry, it would have happened some time ago. It was an odd appointment when it was made. Now Jupp Heynckes takes over for the rest of the season.
The thing is, though, that Bayern remain just three points from the summit. That's courtesy of a shock defeat for Wolfsburg at Cottbus. What a turanaround from Energie. Last week, they were humbled in Gelsenkirchen causing the management to offer refunds. Now the supporters owe them double for this one, holding a previously rampant Wolfsburg at bay and sneaking it with two late goals to Dimitar Rangelov and Ervin Skela. Hertha are in second, two points behind the Wolves after they beat Hoffenheim who are now a completely spent force. An uninspiring game saw Patrick Ebert's first half goal enough to see off the villagers. Stuttgart continue their ascent and look perfectly capable of repeating their 2007 triumph when they came from nowhere to snatch it. Wolfsburg's wobble certainly allowed them to move within range as they saw off Frankfurt with ease. Cacau and Mario Gomez scored either side of half-time and Markus Babbel's men lie three off the pace. As indeed do Hamburg despite losing to Dortmund. BvB now look good for European football next season as Sebastien Kehl and Alexander Frei, with a last second penalty, punished Martin Jol's side's unusually lax defending.
Karlsruhe gave themselves a huge lifeline with a win over Leverkusen that few saw coming. It's amazing what can happen when you have no choice other than to win. Full-back Sebastien Langkamp got the only goal, running it out of defence and, as the Leverkusen defence backed away, lashed it high into the net. He was then in inspired defensive form as Leverkusen huffed and puffed but could not find a way through. Energie's win has really shaken things up down there. They're out of the bottom three, with Arminia and Gladbach a point below them. Those two drew, Robert Tesche equalising for Gladbach after Karim Matmour had scored early on. Both remain in deep trouble as do Bochum who lost an entertaining game with Bremen. Stanislav Sestak put Arminia two up before half-time, but were overrun in the second period. In a second half that saw Bremen dominate possession to the extent where Bielefeld hardly had a kick, Hugo Aleida, Naldo and Diego picked off the chances to secure the points.
Finally, Hannover eased their worries over relegation with a win over fading Cologne, Leon Andreasen putting them two up before Milivoje Novakovic pulled one back and Hannover held on.
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