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The round that took place today was not very successful for the "Bayern" club, which played a goalless draw away against the "Stuttgart" team, who have been struggling this season, ending their streak of five victories and allowing their closest competitors to catch up. It is worth mentioning that the defending champions Munich club finished the match with ten players, as S.Deisler was sent off the field for a foul at the end of the first half.
However, the stumble of their closest rivals was maximally exploited by the "Hamburger" team, who defeated "Koln" 3-1 at home and reduced the gap from the "Bayern" club to just four points. The hosts did not start the match successfully - from the first minutes, the "Koln" team had the initiative, and the situation worsened for the hosts when R.van der Vaart, one of the "Hamburger" leaders, had to leave the field due to an ankle injury after about 17 minutes of play.
Nevertheless, the port city footballers managed to equalize - at the end of the half, T.Atouba scored the first goal of the match and put "Hamburger" ahead. It is worth noting that this was the first goal scored by the player while playing with the "Hamburger" team. There were also incidents in this match - after the referee's final whistle at the end of the first half, a scuffle broke out as the players were going to the locker rooms, which involved the "Koln" defender Alpay. Interestingly, the footballer, who enjoys solving conflicts outside the field, had recently been involved in a big scandal following a fight that occurred after the World Cup qualifiers between the Turkish and Swiss national teams.
Shortly after the break, the 55,000 fans gathered at the AOL stadium were delighted once again by B.Lauth, increasing his club's lead to 2-0. However, right after that, there was unrest again - after the second goal, various objects started flying onto the field from the "Koln" fans' stands, and one of them unfortunately hit "Hamburger" goalkeeper A.Laas in the head. The bleeding footballer had to leave the field, but after receiving the first aid from the team medics, he was able to continue the match.
After about an hour of play, the visitors from Cologne managed to reduce the difference, when former "Hamburger" player B.Schlicke scored a goal with his head. Trying to equalize the score, "Koln" made a defensive mistake that "buried" all hopes of the guests to fight for points - the aforementioned Turkish player Alpay, unmarked by anyone, passed the ball to "Hamburger" defender S.Beinlich, who then sent the ball into the "Koln" penalty area, and the first to reach it, S.Barbarez, scored another goal and helped his team win, which was already the 600th victory in the entire history of the Bundesliga. Meanwhile, in the "Koln" camp, there were only sad news - suffering their seventh defeat in the last nine matches, "Koln" dropped to the sixteenth place in the league. The last time the league newcomers celebrated a victory in the Bundesliga was back in the middle of September.
The "Schalke" club achieved their second consecutive victory by winning away with a minimal result against "Arminia". The only goal of the match was scored by C.Poulsen in the 51st minute. The match between "Gladbach" and "Nurnberg" ended with the same result of 0-1. Thanks to M.Nikl's solo goal, "Nurnberg" secured their third season victory and temporarily climbed to the fifteenth place, guaranteeing survival in the league.
"Werder" team returned to the path of victories after their failure in the previous round of the league - the Bremen club defeated "Duisburg" 2-0 in front of their fans. Both goals for "Werder" were scored after the break, with N.Valdez and T.Borowski making their mark. This was the tenth victory for the "Werder" players this season, reducing the gap from the leading "Bayern" players to six points.
Saturday's statistics
0 - 0
42` Sebastian Deisler ("Bayern") sent off the field
0 - 1
51` [0 - 1] Christian Poulsen
2 - 0
64` [1 - 0] Nelson Valdez
73` [2 - 0] Tim Borowski
0 - 1
62` [0 - 1] Marek Nikl
90` Bartosz Bosacki ("Nurnberg") sent off the field
3 - 1
43` [1 - 0] Thimothee Atouba
54` [2 - 0] Benjamin Lauth
58` [2 - 1] Björn Schlicke
73` [3 - 1] Sergej Barbarez
0 - 2
16` [0 - 1] Steven Cherundolo
85` [0 - 2] Christoph Dabrowski
