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On Saturday, the 24th round of the Bundesliga started, and all attention was focused on Munich where the central match of the round took place between league leaders Bayern and Hamburg clubs. Even the return of the main goalkeeper O.Kahn did not help Bayern to resist Hamburg – in difficult weather conditions, the hosts lost the match and for the second time this season had to admit Hamburg's advantage.
The guests were the first to score, when in the 17th minute after R.van der Vaart's corner kick, Hamburg defender G.Demel sent the ball into O.Kahn's goal and scored the first goal in Bundesliga in his career. Although both teams had plenty of chances, the second goal came only at the end of the match - in the 83rd minute, veteran M.Scholl equalized the score after coming on as a substitute.
However, Bayern Munich failed to save this match – with a minute left before the end of the match, Hamburg's newcomer N.de Jong scored with a header against O.Kahn, helping his team to win a very important victory. By the way, this was Hamburg's first win in Munich in the last 24 years, which also broke an impressive streak of eleven Bayern victories at home. There are ten rounds left until the end of the championship, and the gap between the leaders "Bavarians" and the Hamburg team has already decreased to eight points.
Meanwhile, Werder Bremen team failed to take full advantage of Bayern's failure, playing a draw with Bayer Leverkusen away and coming closer to the leader Bayern by just one point.
In another match, the Schalke team managed to do what was almost impossible for other teams - the Gelsenkirchen footballers defeated Hannover away, which was only the second defeat for the club in front of their fans this season. Playing well in the first half, after C.Poulsen and Z.Bajramovic's goals, Schalke gained a two-goal advantage, which turned out to be enough to bring them three points. The victory allowed the Schalke team to return to the fight for a place in next year's Champions League – now the gap from the Werder footballers in second place is only two points.
Probably finally feeling the threat of relegation from the Bundesliga, the Cologne footballers managed to win, defeating Hertha away 4-2. Two goals were scored by the striker L.Podolski. The victory, which was the first since mid-September last year, allowed Cologne to slightly reduce the gap from the competitors and revive hopes of staying in the strongest German league.
The ascent of the Kaiserslautern team to the top had to be temporarily stopped, as their Saturday match against Stuttgart was postponed due to the unsuitable condition of the stadium. Due to heavy snowfall, the pitch became unsuitable for playing the match, so it was postponed and should take place on Tuesday at 19:00 Lithuanian time.
Results of Saturday's matches:
2 - 4
53` [0 – 1] Lukas Podolski
54` [0 – 2] Marco Streller
56` [1 – 2] Marko Pantelic
75` [1 – 3] Lukas Podolski
83` [2 – 3] Marko Pantelic
87` [2 - 4] Matthias Scherz
1 - 2
16` [0 - 1] Guy Demel
83` [1 – 1] Mehmet Scholl
89` [1 – 2] Nigel de Jong
3 - 0
8` [1 – 0] Robert Vittek
15` [2 – 0] Robert Vittek
86` [3 – 0] Robert Vittek
83` Mihai Tararache ("Duisburg") sent off.
1 - 1
27` [1 – 0] Christian Wörns
53` [1 – 1] Michael Thurk
1 - 2
20` [0 – 1] Christian Poulsen
28` [0 – 2] Zlatan Bajramovic
74` [1 – 2] Thomas Christiansen
73` Christian Poulsen ("Schalke") sent off.
1 - 1
3` [0 – 1] Torsten Frings
41` [1 – 1] Dimitar Berbatov
