Round 28: "Hamburger" reduced the leaders' advantage © EuroFootball.com

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n Saturday, the 28th round of the German Championship took place and two quite unexpected results were recorded: the match in Munich between league leaders "Bayern" and absolute outsiders "Koln" ended in a 2-2 draw, while the second-placed "Hamburger" club managed to defeat "Schalke" away and reduce the "Bavarians'" lead to seven points.

In the Saturday match, both of "Bayern's" leaders, O. Kahn and M. Ballack, who had recovered from minor injuries, returned to the lineup, but the hosts were disappointed from the start when M. Feulner put the visitors ahead in the 13th minute. After about half an hour, W. Sagnol equalized with a shot from 18 meters, but just five minutes later, A. Streit once again put the visitors ahead, "flooding" O. Kahn in the 36th minute and scoring his team's second goal. Before halftime, "Bayern" managed to equalize when R. Makaay scored after a mistake by the "Koln" defender.

After an uncertain performance by O. Kahn in goal, M. Rensing replaced him after halftime, and shortly after, B. Schweinsteiger and M. Scholl also appeared on the field, but these changes did not help "Bayern" break through "Koln's" defense and the match ended in a 2-2 draw. In the remaining six matches, "Bayern" needs to collect twelve points to secure the league champions title.

In the central match of the round, "Hamburger" managed to recover from a painful defeat in the previous round and defeated the strong "Schalke" team 2-0 away - up to this match, the Gelsenkirchen club had won all their home games. The victory for the port city club was sealed by goals from two club legionnaires - Dutchman R. van der Vaart in the 56th minute and Brazilian Ailton doubling the lead in the 80th minute. It is worth noting that in this match, "Schalke" played with ten men from the 28th minute. After this victory, "Hamburger" maintained a three-point advantage over "Werder" and reduced "Bayern's" lead to seven.

"Werder" players secured their second consecutive victory by defeating "Eintracht" away with a narrow margin. The only goal of the match, ensuring victory for "Werder," was scored by the league's top scorer M. Klose from the penalty spot.

Significant victories in the fight for qualification for the UEFA Cup tournament were achieved by the clubs "Hertha" and "Bayer": in the capital, "Hertha" defeated the underperforming "Stuttgart" team 2-0 at home this season, while "Bayer" crushed the returning "Kaiserslautern" club, who had fallen back into a losing streak, by 5-1. With six rounds left in the championship, "Hertha" occupies the fifth position, and "Bayer" players are in sixth.

The "Nurnberg" team also achieved a significant victory, defeating the "Mainz" club 3-0 at home and further increasing their lead from the relegation zone - now "Nurnberg" is seven points ahead of the sixteenth place. In this match, all three most productive players of the team excelled: I. Saenko, S. Kiessling, and R. Vittek. By the way, for the latter striker, this was already his 11th goal this season from the penalty spot.

All round results:

2 - 0

46` [1 - 0] Marcelinho

69` [2 - 0] Marcelinho (penalty)

2 - 2

13` [0 - 1] Markus Feulner

29` [1 - 1] Willy Sagnol

36` [1 - 2] Albert Streit

39` [2 - 2] Roy Makaay

0 - 1

70` [0 - 1] Miroslav Klose (penalty)

1 - 1

73` [0 - 1] Peter van Houdt

90` [1 - 1] Steve Marlet

61` Diego Klimowicz ("Wolfsburg") sent off

5 - 1

9` [1 - 0] Tranquillo Barnetta

37` [2 - 0] Dimitar Berbatov (penalty)

61` [3 - 0] Dimitar Berbatov

64` [3 - 1] Marcelo Pletsch

85` [4 - 1] Clemens Fritz

90` [5 - 1] Dimitar Berbatov (penalty)

2 - 1

6` [1 - 0] Nando Rafael

16` [1 - 1] Tomas Rosicky (penalty)

34` [2 - 1] Nando Rafael

3 - 0

3` [1 - 0] Ivan Saenko

68` [2 - 0] Stefan Kießling

79` [3 - 0] Robert Vittek

0 - 2

57` [0 - 1] Rafael van der Vaart

80` [0 - 2] Ailton

0 - 1

5` [0 - 1] Fatmir Vata