Bayern battle on as Juve stutter

FC Bayern München's leadership of the German Bundesliga went on with a hard-fought win on Saturday. However, UEFA Champions League Group A rivals Juventus saw their perfect start to the Serie A season brought to a shuddering halt by AC Milan, while the section's other two teams enjoyed mixed fortunes.

1. FC Köln 1-2 FC Bayern München

Bayern rounded off a successful week on the domestic front with victory at Köln to stay two points clear at the German Bundesliga summit on Saturday. However, there was disappointing news on Sunday when it was revealed Roque Santa Cruz, substituted at half-time against Köln, will be out for six months with a cruciate knee ligament injury.

Bayern, who defeated FC Erzgebirge Aue 1-0 in the second round of the German Cup on Wednesday thanks to a Michael Ballack goal, fell behind on 28 minutes when Matthias Scherz gave the home side the lead. Brazil defender Lucio equalised ten minutes into the second half before Ballack sealed all three points with a header 16 minutes from time.

Bayern went into the match without Philipp Lahm, Andreas Görlitz (both cruciate ligament), Bixente Lizarazu (calf) and Owen Hargreaves (groin). However, Lizarazu and Hargreaves have both returned to training. Martin Demichelis made Bayern's starting lineup, having served a one-match suspension.

"We were dominant in the first 15 minutes of the match and had a string of good chances," said Bayern coach Felix Magath. "But we lost our way midway through the first half and made life hard for ourselves. I am not pleased with our performance but I am happy with the result."

AC Milan 3-1 Juventus

Juventus' perfect start to the domestic start was ruined by a highly-motivated Milan side on Saturday. Having three days earlier made it nine wins out of nine with a win against UC Sampdoria, Juventus failed to reach double figures at the San Siro.

The Bianconeri defeated Sampdoria on Wednesday courtesy of goals from David Trezeguet and Adrian Mutu and won in style despite key players Lilian Thuram and Zlatan Ibrahimović being rested. It was a different story in Milan, as first-half strikes from Clarence Seedorf, Kaká and Andrea Pirlo put the result beyond doubt, before Trezeguet pulled one back late on.

With Gianluigi Buffon and Christian Abbiati sidelined for Juventus, third-choice goalkeeper Antonio Chimenti started. Gianluca Zambrotta played right-back with Gianluca Pessotto on the left to cover for injured Frenchman Jonathan Zebina. Patrick Vieira played 90 minutes after shrugging off groin trouble, while Ibrahimović also started.

Juventus coach Fabio Capello was surprisingly upbeat. "Tonight I realised once again that we are a very strong team," he said. "We conceded the first goal - an unlucky deflection - when we were clearly dominating the game and then they scored two other strange goals from set-pieces. I think we played really well and despite the result I'm even more convinced of our strength after tonight's performance."

Club Brugge KV 2-1 KAA Gent

Club Brugge defeated their close neighbours 2-1 on Saturday thanks to a double from on-loan forward Javier Portillo. The young Spaniard, currently contracted to Real Madrid CF, opened the scoring with a shot on the turn in the 25th minute after receiving a headed pass from Sven Vermant. He seemed to put the result beyond doubt 17 minutes from time, heading in an Ivan Leko corner.

But Dominic Foley brought Gent back into the match with eight minutes to go, and only the woodwork stopped Stephen Laybutt from equalising in a frantic period of added time. Club Brugge held on to close to within four points of RSC Anderlecht in second, and six behind R. Standard de Liège.

Marek Spilar and Gregory Dufer were suspended, while Michael Klukowski (knee), Rune Lange (calf), Manasseh Ishiaku (thigh), Joos Valgaeren (knee) and Jason Vandelannoite (groin) all sat out injured.

Club Brugge assistant coach Franky van der Elst said: "We played a pretty good match and went 2-0 in front without a problem. Although we were not perfect, we had some good attacks, and our only failure was in not scoring a third goal. Then you see some bad positioning in the defence for the Gent goal, although I do not want to blame anyone as [Jonathan] Blondel is not a real defender. Then you have to suffer and sweat on the bench."

SV Mattersburg 0-0 SK Rapid Wien

Rapid's winning run came to an end following a goalless draw at Mattersburg, which saw them fall five points behind leaders SV Austria Salzburg, who secured maximum points on Saturday. The Austrian Bundesliga champions had won their last two league games against FK Austria Wien and Grazer AK but struggled to find a way through Mattersburg in a game of few openings.

Andreas Ivanschitz was forced to sit out the game because of flu, while first-choice goalkeeper Helge Payer was still suffering from achilles problems and so Raimund Hedl deputised, though Payer is likely to be fit to face Club Brugge. Jozef Valachovič was also absent with tendinitis.

"Mattersburg had some chances in the first half but we were better in the second," Rapid coach Josef Hickersberger said. "It was a fair draw in the end. We could see that some of our players were struggling for fitness and appeared a bit tired, which meant we did not have enough power or concentration in the end to win this match."