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During the 22nd round of the Bundesliga that started on Saturday, the league leaders "Bayern" lost points for the second time in the last three matches. This time, the defending champions from Bavaria narrowly escaped defeat against "Hannover".
Although both teams had opportunities, the first half ended goalless. The second half started very poorly for "Bayern" - in the 51st minute, after a collision with T.Brdaric, the away team's goalkeeper O.Kahn had to leave the field due to injury. And just five minutes later, the same T.Brdaric defeated M.Rensing, who had recently made an appearance on the field, and put "Hannover" ahead.
After the missed goal, the visitors tried to equalize, but the strikers failed to capitalize on the opportunities. Tension increased even further when a penalty for eleven meters was not awarded to "Hannover" after D.Zurawas touched the ball with his hand in the penalty area. However, the Munich team managed to save the match in the 89th minute when M.Ballack, the team's leader, equalized with a header after a cross from W.Sagnol.
The draw of these league leaders allowed "Werder" to come closer, as they managed to beat "Borussia" away by a narrow margin. The only goal of the match was scored by the Croatian I.Klasnic, marking his tenth goal in this Bundesliga season. The victory allowed the "Werder" team to temporarily rise to second place and reduce the gap from "Bayern" to nine points.
"Nurnberg" also secured a 1-0 victory at home, defeating visitors from Wolfsburg. The goal came in the 16th minute - D.Reinhardt, breaking through the right flank, passed the ball to the penalty area, where R.Vittek's shot was not successful, but I.Saenko easily defeated the "Wolfsburg" goalkeeper with a follow-up shot. After this loss, "Wolfsburg" remained in thirteenth place, but now only two points above the relegation zone.
"Kaiserslautern" players extended their successful climb from the bottom of the table by defeating "Arminia" 2-0 at home. Both goals were scored by B.Sanogo, who has been in excellent form lately - the forward, originally from the Ivory Coast, has now scored in three consecutive matches. After the victory, Kaiserslautern's club climbed to sixteenth place and tied in points with the "Mainz" team, who will play against "Stuttgart" on Sunday.
On the other hand, "Koln" cannot boast of any revival. The club from Cologne, back in the league this season, suffered their thirteenth defeat by losing 0-2 away to "Gladbach", who are also not experiencing their best times. This was only the second victory for "Gladbach" in the last eleven matches, while "Koln" has been in a worse situation - the team last felt the taste of victory in the middle of September last year.
Saturday's statistics:
3 – 2
7` [1 – 0] Paul Freier
9` [2 – 0] Tranquillo Barnetta
42` [2 – 1] Klemen Lavric
65` [2 – 2] Klemen Lavric
85` [3 – 2] Dimitar Berbatov
77` Marino Biliskov ("Duisburg") sent off.
0 – 1
37` [0 – 1] Ivan Klasnic
1 – 1
56` [1 – 0] Thomas Brdaric
89` [1 – 1] Michael Ballack
1 – 2
6` [0 – 1] Gerald Asamoah
33` [1 – 1] Alexander Madlung
45` [1 – 2] Zlatan Bajramovic
66` Fabian Ernst ("Schalke") and 85` Gilberto ("Hertha") sent off.
2 – 0
9` [1 – 0] Boubacar Sanogo
88` [2 – 0] Boubacar Sanogo
2 – 0
54` [1 – 0] Christian Lell (own goal)
74` [2 – 0] Oliver Neuville
28` Roland Benschneider ("Koln") sent off.
1 – 0
16` [1 – 0] Ivan Saenko
