Germany round-up: Dortmund reclaim second place

BV Borussia Dortmund regained second place in the 1. Bundesliga with a resounding 4-1 home win against 1. FC Nürnberg.

Narrow advantage
Dortmund moved level with VfB Stuttgart on 56 points, but reclaimed second place by virtue of a superior goal difference. Lars Ricken gave the home side the lead three minutes before the half-hour, and doubled his side's advantage nine minutes after half-time.

Important third
Giuseppe Reina virtually secured all three points with a third goal after 65 minutes, before Czech Republic striker Jan Koller completed the home side's win three minutes later. Sasa Ciric scored a last-minute consolation for Nürnberg, who remained second bottom in the standings.

Stuttgart slip
Stuttgart's hopes of claiming a place in next season's UEFA Champions League suffered a blow at home to SV Werder Bremen, whose own challenge for a European place was reinvigorated by the 1-0 win. The only goal of the game arrived six minutes after half-time, as Stuttgart defender Rui Marques put through his own goal to gift the away team all three points.

Bayern hit Hertha for six
Champions FC Bayern München enjoyed a remarkable 6-3 win Hertha BSC Berlin, despite falling behind to a Michael Ballack own goal after just five minutes. The match was turned in the away side's favour by a first-half hat-trick from Giovane Elber, while fellow striker Claudio Pizarro also scored twice before half-time. Although Marcelinho scored twice for the home side in the second period, Ballack completed Bayern's victory two minutes from time.

Energie relegated
At the other end of the table, FC Energie Cottbus were relegated after suffering a 3-0 defeat at TSV 1860 München, with Markus Schroth scoring twice and Jiayi Shao once.
 
Leverkusen's hopes fading
Bayer 04 Leverkusen's hopes of avoiding demotion were damaged by a heavy 4-1 defeat at Hamburger SV. Sergej Barbarez opened the scoring after 18 minutes, before Hamburg's Tomas Ujfalusi and Bernd Schneider of Leverkusen were both dismissed seven minutes after half-time.

Injury-time strikes
Bernardo Romeo made it 2-0 three minutes later and, although Hanno Balitsch gave the away side hope two minutes from time, goals in injury time from Erik Meijer and Lars Jacobsen confirmed their defeat.

Important win
Elsewhere, VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach moved away from the relegation zone with a 3-0 win at home to FC Hansa Rostock, while VfL Wolfsburg drew 2-2 with 1. FC Kaiserslautern.

Sunday action
On Sunday, struggling Hannover 96 travel to FC Schalke 04, while DSC Arminia Bielefeld, also in relegation trouble, are at home to VfL Bochum 1848.