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One of the loudest and richest German clubs, Bayern Munich secured their fifth Bundesliga champions title in the past seven years on Saturday - the Bavarians crushed Kaiserslautern and now have an 11-point advantage over Schalke, who are in second place with Bayer still having three games left.
The team coached by F. Magath left no hopes for the opponents and defeated them with a score of 4-0. Three goals were scored by one of the most efficient players of the championship, Dutchman R. Makaay, and one was added by captain M. Ballack taking over the role from the injured O. Kahn.
"Bayern" players - German champions (photo by Bundesliga.de)
Hopes for the champions title were finally lost by Schalke from Gelsenkirchen, unable to defeat Bayer Leverkusen at home and ending in a draw. Nevertheless, Schalke remained in second place, as Stuttgart in third place lost away to Gladbach.
Sharing the fourth place are reigning champions Werder Bremen, who secured an easy victory against Bielefield's Arminia, and Hertha of Berlin, unexpectedly losing away to one of the outsiders of the championship, Rostock's Hansa.
The match between Bochum and Mainz was very high-scoring - the score was tied 1-1 after the first half, but after an hour of play, Mainz started scoring goals one after another and won with an unusual score of 2-6. In other matches of the day, Freiburg played a draw with Borussia Dortmund.
Statistics of Saturday matches:
Gladbach 2 - 0 Stuttgart 16' [1 - 0] Oliver Neuville 24' [2 - 0] Vaclav Sverkos 48' Fernando Meira (Stuttgart) sent off
Hansa 2 - 1 Hertha 45' [1 - 0] Tim Sebastian 71' [2 - 0] Jari Litmanen 74' [2 - 1] Yildiray Basturk
Kaiserslautern 0 - 4 Bayern 19' [0 - 1] Michael Ballack 35' [0 - 2] Roy Makaay 48' [0 - 3] Roy Makaay 67' [0 - 4] Roy Makaay
Freiburg 2 - 2 Borussia 11' [1 - 0] Wilfried Sanou 37' [1 - 1] Ewerthon 40' [1 - 2] Jan Koller 83' [2 - 2] Soumaila Coulibaly
Schalke 3 - 3 Bayer 23' [0 - 1] Paul Freier 30' [1 - 1] Lincoln 37' [2 - 1] Lincoln 41' [3 - 1] Ebbe Sand 56' [3 - 2] Dimitar Berbatov 64' [3 - 3] Andriy Voronin 66' Roque Junior (Bayer) sent off
Bochum 2 - 6 Mainz 6' [0 - 1] Benjamin Auer 26' [1 - 1] Vratislav Lokvenc 60' [1 - 2] Michael Thurk 65' [1 - 3] Fabian Gerber 68' [1 - 4] Antonio Da Silva 77' [1 - 5] Benjamin Weigelt 84' [1 - 6] Conor Casey 87' [2 - 6] Tommy Bachmann
Werder 3 - 0 Arminia 43' [1 - 0] Ludovic Magnin 53' [2 - 0] Tim Borowski 79' [3 - 0] Miroslav Klose
