Bayern breathe down leaders' necks
Saturday, November 6, 2004
Article summary
FC Bayern München moved within a point of VfL Wolfsburg at the top of the Bundesliga with a 3-0 victory.
Article body
By Mark Bennett
FC Bayern München moved within a point of VfL Wolfsburg after a 3-0 home win against Hannover 96, while the Bundesliga leaders suffered a 4-0 reverse at 1. FC Nürnberg.
Mintal hat-trick
Marek Mintal scored for Nürnberg only 47 seconds into the game and things got worse for Wolfsburg when Andrés D'Alessandro was shown a red card in the eighth minute. Further strikes from Mintal and Markus Schroth gave the hosts a 3-0 half-time lead, before Mintal completed his hat-trick. Nürnberg are now in ninth place, while FC Schalke 04 can overtake the leaders with victory against Hamburger SV on Sunday.
Strikers shine
Bayern closed the gap on Wolfsburg with a comfortable success against Hannover, who went into the match on a five-game unbeaten run. Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring on three minutes and Roy Makaay doubled the advantage ten minutes from the end. Paulo Guerrero then sealed the win in the final minute with his first-ever Bundesliga goal. Bayern are in second place, but can be overhauled by Schalke and VfB Stuttgart, who are also in action on Sunday against FC Hansa Rostock. Hannover dropped to fifth.
Leverkusen comeback
Bayer 04 Leverkusen came from behind to take three points against SC Freiburg at the BayArena. Soumalia Coulibaly put the visitors in front in the first half, but two second-half goals from Paul Freier and strikes from Jacek Krzynówek and Andriy Voronin turned the tide in Leverkusen's favour, while Freiburg lost Youssef Mohamad to a red card.
Draw for Advocaat
Dick Advocaat had the perfect start to his career as VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach coach when Václav Sverkos scored after 13 minutes at FSV Mainz 05. Mainz, however, equalised 15 minutes into the second half through Nikolce Noveski.
Bremen held
Champions Werder Bremen had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Hertha BSC Berlin while DSC Arminia Bielefeld beat BV Borussia Dortmund 1-0 thanks to Delron Buckley's eighth goal of the season. Finally, strugglers VfL Bochum 1848 and 1. FC Kaiserslautern shared the spoils after a 1-1 draw.
