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After Saturday's matches, it became almost clear that this year Bundesliga will most likely have a new champion - defending champions Bayern Munich lost 0-2 away to Stuttgart, while league leaders Schalke secured another three points and increased their lead over Bayern to nine points with four games remaining.
Losing to the higher-placed Stuttgart club, Bayern also complicated their situation in the fight for the right to play in the UEFA Champions League - currently trailing five points behind the favorable third position. The decisive moment in the Saturday afternoon South German derby was a couple of minutes in the middle of the first half, when Stuttgart forward Cacau scored both goals of the match.
After a victory on Friday, Werder Bremen climbed to the first place, but Schalke also did not lose points in this round - defeating league newcomers Cottbus 2-0, the Gelsenkirchen team regained the leader position with a two-point advantage.
After about an hour of play, opponent's player T.Rost gifted the first goal to Schalke by sending the ball into his own net, and a few minutes later M.Bordon secured the home team's victory with a header.
The long series of failures was finally broken by the Bayer team, who defeated Nurnberg 2-0 at home, with club veteran B.Schneider scoring twice in this match. After the victory, Leverkusen team pushed Nurnberg out of the fifth position, which gives the opportunity to compete in the UEFA Cup.
Important victories were achieved by the clubs balancing on the brink of relegation, Bochum and Borussia, who managed to temporarily escape the danger zone, and Arminia, who defeated Wolfsburg away after a tough battle.
All Saturday results:
0 - 3
32' [0 - 1] Theofanis Gekas
58' [0 - 2] Joel Epalle
69' [0 - 3] Joel Epalle
2 - 0
60' [1 - 0] Timo Rost (own goal)
64' [2 - 0] Marcelo Bordon
0 - 1
49' [0 - 1] Markus Brzenska
2 - 0
19' [1 - 0] Bernd Schneider
59' [2 - 0] Bernd Schneider
2 - 0
23' [1 - 0] Cacau
25' [2 - 0] Cacau
2 - 3
8' [0 - 1] Heiko Westermann
16' [1 - 1] Marcelinho
53' [2 - 1] Isaac Boakye
71' [2 - 2] Christian Eigler
86' [2 - 3] Artur Wichniarek
League table:
