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After the winter break, the German Bundesliga continues. In a fierce battle for the champions title, the "Schalke" team rose to a dominant leader position, while "Stuttgart" team, trying not to fall behind the leaders this season, started the year with a crushing defeat.
After the first round of the championship, "Werder" and "Schalke" had the same number of points and were leading the league, but after this Saturday's matches, at least temporarily, the Gelsenkirchen footballers settled in the first place, defeating the "Eintracht" team in the second half of the match.
The first goal did not take long to wait and already in the 16th minute, after a successful shot by G. Valero with his left foot from about 20 meters, the Frankfurt "Eintracht" goalkeeper was forced to remove the ball from his goal. The hosts equalized shortly after the break, and after an interesting "pass," N.Takahara scored - after a collision between two footballers, the ball somehow bounced to N.Takahara and he defeated "Schalke" goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from ten meters away.
All the matters of the "Schalke" team were solved by forward K.Kuranyi - with twenty minutes left to play in the match, the German led the visitors forward with a header, and at the end of the match, finding himself in a counterattack position, he beat the "Eintracht" goalkeeper and secured his club's victory with a precise shot into the empty net.
The acquired three-point advantage over the "Werder" club could melt away already on Sunday if the Bremen team manages to achieve a victory against the other representatives of northern Germany, "Hannover."
The "Stuttgart" team found itself in a slightly worse position - after Saturday's matches, they are already seven points behind the leader. The "Stuttgart" footballers suffered a 1-4 defeat to the "Nurnberg" team as visitors. After the first half, the situation was not too bad for the guests from Stuttgart - in the 25th minute I.Saenko brought "Nurnberg" forward, but "Stuttgart" responded with a goal a few minutes later when the home team's goalkeeper failed to catch M.Gomez's shot low, and taking advantage of it, J.Cacau sent the ball into the net.
At the beginning of the second half, "Nurnberg" regained the advantage - Robert Vittek managed to intercept the ball in the opponents' penalty area, passed it to the right to defender V.Gresko, and the latter with a low shot into the far corner of the goal defeated Timo Hildebrand.
Soon "Stuttgart" was down to ten men and that finally broke the team - in the remaining time T.Hildebrand had to extract the ball from the net twice. By the way, it is reported that after this season, the goalkeeper may end up in the ranks of the "Valencia" team.
In the duel of the league's outsiders, the "Mainz" club won important three points, defeating "Bochum" with a minimal result as visitors. The only and winning goal of the match, after a precise pass from Imre Szabics, was scored by M.Rose with a header, his second goal of the season.
After the victory, "Mainz" remained at the bottom of the table, but they have now equal points with the "Hamburger" team, which still seems to not have recovered from a crisis after the winter break - leading against "Arminia" almost from the beginning of the match, the seaport players conceded a goal in the 89th minute and painfully lost the victory. "Arminia" was saved from defeat by M.Borges, left unguarded in the penalty area, who directed the ball into the goal with his head, passed by a teammate.
The league newcomers "Cottbus" started the year with a victory, defeating the visiting "Gladbach" footballers, who are tragically unsuccessful in away matches, with a 3-1 score. "Cottbus" solved almost all questions at the end of the first half by playing a great run and gaining a two-goal advantage - S.Radu scored both times.
At the end of the match, D.Degen's goal with a head from close range briefly revived the hopes of the guests to fight for at least a point, but a little later V.Munteanu's goal secured the home team's victory. After the defeat, "Gladbach" remained in the relegation zone, while "Cottbus" settled in the middle of the table.
