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And so continues the German football championship. The sixteenth round of the Bundesliga started on Saturday, which was characterized by intense battles - only one team managed to win by a margin greater than one goal.
This feat was achieved by the league newcomers "Eintracht", who defeated "Borussia" 2-0 at their own stadium. Frankfurt club scored the first goal at the beginning of the match, after receiving a precise pass from B. Kohler, F. Copado beat the "Borussia" goalkeeper. At the start of the second half, both teams had several good opportunities to score, but neither managed to capitalize. The situation for the "Borussia" team was further complicated by T. Rosicky, who received a second yellow card in the 73rd minute and left his team to fight with ten men. "Eintracht" took advantage of this and in the 84th minute I. Amanatidis doubled the lead and secured the victory for his club.
One of the championship leaders "Hamburger" club secured their eleventh season victory by defeating Berlin's "Hertha" 2-1 at home. The "Hamburger" team took a big step towards victory right at the start of the match - in the 3rd minute, "Hertha" defender D. van Burik scored an own goal, and five minutes later, M. Mahdavikia scored another goal, giving "Hamburger" a solid lead after just eight minutes. At the end of the match, the visitors from the capital managed to reduce the deficit, but were unable to take points away from the "Hamburger" team. It is worth mentioning that almost the entire second half "Hertha" played without their leader Marcelinho, who was sent off the field in the 56th minute for a second yellow card. After this victory, the coastal club reduced the gap from the leading "Bayern" to just one point, although the Munich footballers have played one less match.
Despite being eliminated from the Champions League, "Schalke" continued their winning streak in the Bundesliga - the Gelsenkirchen footballers narrowly defeated "Mainz" at home, with the only goal scored by M. J. Bordon at the beginning of the second half. The victory by a score of 1-0 was also secured by the "Stuttgart" team, who defeated the resistance of "Wolfsburg" away. Extending their unbeaten streak to ten matches, the "Stuttgart" team climbed to seventh place, while "Wolfsburg" are performing much worse - in their last six games, the "Wolfsburg" players managed to earn only two points and currently occupy twelfth place.
It was a rather successful round for the league outsiders - the recently changed "Nurnberg" team played 1-1 at home with "Bayer" and moved up one place from sixteenth. The match between the bottom-of-the-table "Duisburg" and the mid-table "Arminia" ended in a 1-1 draw. Claiming their second consecutive draw, the "Duisburg" team increased their lead over the "Kaiserslautern" club in last place by another point. However, the latter team has played two games less and could overtake the "Zebras" in this round if they manage to cause a sensation and defeat the title-defending "Bayern" club away on Sunday.
All results
1 - 1
49` [0 - 1] Kahe
67` [1 - 1] Jiri Stajner
2 - 0
9` [1 - 0] Francisco Copado
84` [2 - 0] Ioannis Amanatidis
73` Tomas Rosicky ("Borussia") sent off
1 - 1
29` [1 - 0] Markus Schroth
45` [1 - 1] Bernd Schneider
1 - 1
42` [1 - 0] Abdelaziz Ahanfouf
53` [1 - 1] Fatmir Vata
69` Markus Kurth ("Duisburg") sent off
0 - 1
62` [0 - 1] Silvio Meissner
1 - 0
58` [1 - 0] Marcelo Jose Bordon
2 - 1
3` [1 - 0] Dick van Burik (own goal)
8` [2 - 0] Mehdi Mahdavikia
76` [2 - 1] Yildiray Basturk
52` Marcelinho ("Hertha") sent off
