Bundesliga: Battle of the Leaders - Victory for "Bayern" © EuroFootball.com

On Saturday, seven matches of the twelfth round of the German football championship were played. The round was successful for the home teams - teams playing at home won five victories, while the other two matches ended in a draw. In the duel of the championship leaders between "Bayern" and "Werder", the advantage was with the "Bayern" players, who defeated the visitors from Bremen with a score of 3-1. The Munich team had to fight back the opponents after M. Klose won the aerial duel against his team-mate in the German national team B. Schweinsteiger in the first minute of the match and headed the ball into the "Bayern" net. By the way, this was already the twelfth goal of the league's top scorer this season. Just two minutes later, B. Schweinsteiger equalized the score, and at the end of the first half, C. Pizzaro and R. Makaay added two more goals to strengthen "Bayern's" advantage. It is worth mentioning that it was the first header goal after a long drought of goals. After the victory, the Munich team increased their lead over "Werder" to five points. Finally, the nightmarish streak of six consecutive defeats was halted by the "Koln" players, who played a 1-1 draw with "Wolfsburg" on the road. It is worth noting that "Koln" equalized the score in the 88th minute of the match. However, the earned point slightly improved the position of the "Koln" team - the newcomers in the league continue to be in fifteenth place and are only four points ahead of the last-placed "Nurnberg" team, who will play their round match on Sunday. "Schalke" team returned to the winning path - the Gelsenkirchen players defeated "Duisburg" at home with a score of 3-0. K. Kuranyi and D. Rodriguez's goals secured the victory for the "Schalke" team. Two more matches ended with the same score - "Hertha" did not spare "Kaiserslautern", while "Eintracht" crushed "Arminia" from Belefield at home. The most efficient player of the "Eintracht" team, winger A. Meier, scored two goals for his team. In another match, "Hannover" team snatched a hard-fought 2-2 draw with "Mainz" at home. It is worth mentioning that with about five minutes remaining in the match, "Mainz" was leading 2-0, but the hosts fought back and thanks to goals from T. Brdaric and M. Tarnat, "Hannover" managed to equalize the score and earn an important point. The "Bayer" players achieved a difficult victory, defeating the "Borussia" team 2-1 at home. The hosts took the lead when Juan outplayed the "Borussia" goalkeeper from about five meters after receiving a pass from D. Berbatov. The visitors from Dortmund found the strength to equalize - after playing for a little over an hour, L. Ricken scored his fourth goal of the season and leveled the score. However, the visitors failed to earn any points in this match - after a corner near the "Borussia" goal, F. Kringe unsuccessfully tried to clear the ball, sending it into his own net and "giving" three points to the "Bayer" team. After the victory, the Leverkusen team rose to eighth place, while the "Borussia" players are ninth. Statistics of Saturday's matches: 2 - 1 33` [1 - 0] Juan 69` [1 - 1] Lars Ricken 86` [2 - 1] Florian Kringe (own goal) 3 - 1 1` [0 - 1] Miroslav Klose 3` [1 - 1] Bastian Schweinsteiger 34` [2 - 1] Claudio Pizarro 44` [3 - 1] Roy Makaay 3 - 0 13` [1 - 0] Kevin Kuranyi 67` [2 - 0] Alexander Meyer (own goal) 86` [3 - 0] Dario Rodriguez 2 - 2 31` [0 - 1] Manuel Friedrich 65` [0 - 2] Benjamin Auer 86` [1 - 2] Thomas Brdaric (penalty) 90` [2 - 2] Michael Tarnat 3 - 0 6` [1 - 0] Marcelinho 48` [2 - 0] Marko Pantelic 52` [3 - 0] Nando Rafael 1 - 1 41` [1 - 0] Diego Klimowicz 88` [1 - 1] Denis Epstein 77` Kevin Hofland (Wolfsburg) sent off 3 - 0 35` [1 - 0] Francisco Copado 49` [2 - 0] Alexander Meier 55` [3 - 0] Alexander Meier