Leverkusen 2-2 Arminia
Hoffenheim 2-0 Cologne
Hannover 1-1 Eintracht
Energie 1-3 Bayern
Stuttgart 4-1 Wolfsburg
Hertha 2-0 Bochum
Dortmund 4-0 Karlsruhe
Monchengladbach 1-0 Schalke
Bremen 2-0 Hamburg
Five points now cover the top six in Germany - one point covering the top three - in a ridiculously close title race. All this came about courtesy of leaders Wolfsburg getting hammered in Stuttgart. Billed as a battle between the three hot shot strikers on show, Mario Gomez rose to the occasion scoring all four of his sides goals as they move within two of the summit. His first came barely 30 seconds into the contest, heading past a stranded Diego Benaglio. 20 minutes later, Cacau sprang the offside trap - he was on, two others were off, causing the Wolfsburg defence to stand and watch - and teed Gomez up for a tap-in before Edin Dzeko pulled one back. Two more for Gomez in the second half wrapped it up. Wolfsburg still lead, but only by virtue of two goals better difference than Bayern who won easily at Cottbus. José Sosa opened the scoring for the Bavarians, but they went in level after Ivica Iliev equalised a minute from half-time. The second half was all Bayern with Martin Demichelis and Lukas Podolski getting further goals and they also had time for Franck Ribéry to miss a penalty.
Hertha are third, a point back, after a comfortable win over Bochum, courtesy of Marko Pantelic and Raffael, with Stuttgart a point back from the Berliners. Hamburg and Dortmund are level on 55 points, five off the top, but the two sides are going different ways. Hamburg look done after Hugo Almeida scored twice to make Martin Jol utterly sick of the sight of Bremen. Dortmund, on the other hand, are the form team in the league with their sixth straight win coming at the expense of Karlsruhe. A goal up at the break through Jakub Blaszczykowski, they ran riot in the second with goals from Nuri Sahin, Felipe Santana and Alexander Frei.
Gladbach move out of the bottom three thanks to a one-goal win over Schalke. They left it late, Robert Colautti getting the winner in second half stoppage time, sparing the blushes of his precocious team-mate Marko Marin who missed a first half penalty. Karlsruhe remain bottom, five points from safety with three games to go. Cottbus drop to second bottom with Arminia in the relegation play-off place despite picking up a point in Leverkusen. The home side had to come from behind as Stefan Kiessling's opener was equalised within a minute by his team-mate Manuel Friedrich who put through his own net. Robert Tesche then put Arminia ahead before the break, but Patrick Helmes squared it back up eleven minutes from the end, his tewntieth of the season.
Hannover and Eintracht stumbled to a one-all draw, Arnold Bruggink putting Hannover ahead early with Umit Korkmaz equalising before the break and Hoffenheim finally won in '09, at home to Cologne. Two super goals did it, a splendid free-kick from Sejad Salihovic and this fizzer from Demba Ba. Cologne finished with ten men when Youssef Mohamad was sent off ten minutes from time, though Boubacar Sanogo missed the resultant penalty.
There's a round of games in midweek this week too as the season comes to a close.
Tuesday:
Karlsruhe v Hannover
Wolfsburg v Dortmund
Cologne v Hertha
Bayern v Leverkusen
Wednesday:
Hamburg v Bochum
Eintracht v Bremen
Schalke v Stuttgart
Energie v Monchengladbach
Arminia v Hoffenheim
The big one there is Wolfsburg against Dortmund with the Wolves needing to get back to winning ways quickly. Stuttgart have a tough game at Schalke, though Bayern should be OK at home to Leverkusen. Hertha look good to maintain the pressure at Cologne. Hamburg need to beat Bochum to stand any chance, you fancy, while the big game at the bottom sees Gladbach go to Energie in a proverbial six-pointer.
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