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  • Monday 3 May 2010

    Bayern virtually home: Bundesliga reviews

    Hannover 6-1 Monchengladbach
    Leverkusen 1-1 Hertha
    Hamburg 4-0 Nurnberg
    Cologne 2-2 Freiburg
    Eintracht 1-2 Hoffenheim
    Dortmund 1-1 Wolfsburg
    Schalke 0-2 Bremen
    Stuttgart 2-2 Mainz
    Bayern 3-1 Bochum

    It's not certain yet, but Bayern are pretty much home and hosed after the penultimate round of fixtures. Schalke lost at home to Bremen as a Mesut Ozil-inspired Werder side beat the 2-0. Ozil scored one and set up Hugo Almeida for the other while Thomas Muller was busy compiling a hat-trick which eased them past Bochum who slip into the bottom two - the automatic relegation places. That leaves Bayern three points in front with one game to play, but with an advantage on goal difference of 17. Schalke are going to have to put a bagful away next week while hoping Bayern concede a similarly large number. I'll stick my neck out and say it's not going to happen.

    At the other end, Hertha are down. They needed to win and started well enough, Raffael putting them ahead of Leverkusen on twelve minutes, but Manuel Friedrich levelled it up on the hour. And so it remained, dropping Hertha out of the Bundesliga. Nurnberg are in the relegation play-off place after copping a 4-0 hiding from Hamburg, Mladen Petric with two as they bounced back from Europa League disappointment. Hannover were the big winners of the weekend, pulling themselves out of the danger zone after sticking half a dozen past Gladbach. They had six different players on the scoresheet too as they ran into a 4-0 half-time lead and closed it out after the break. Freiburg are safe after drawing with Cologne. Mohamadou Idrissou scored twice to put them in front after Zoran Tosic put Cologne ahead. Sebastien Freis equalised late on, but a point is enough for Freiburg.

    Dortmund were held by Wolfsburg, all but ending their hopes of Champions League hopes. Edin Dzeko put the outgoing champions ahead and though Marco Stiepermann pulled one back, they needed a win. Bremen hold the advantage on goal difference. They will get Europa League football though, as Stuttgart are just too far behind after drawing with Mainz. Ciprian Marica got two to level it up after Malik Fathi and Andre Schurrle had put Mainz ahead. Eintracht blew a lead against Hoffenheim. Pirmin Schwegler put them in front on twenty minutes, but Prince Tagoe struck twice in the last ten minutes to give the Villagers a win.

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