Dortmund stay top after defeating Leverkusen
Reuters - Saturday 11 February 2012, 19:42
Borussia Dortmund
maintained a two-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga with a
1-0 win at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday as title rivals
Bayern Munich beat Kaiserslautern 2-0 to keep pace.
Dortmund scored on the stroke of half-time when Japan
international Shinji Kagawa shook off two defenders with a fine
solo run and slotted the ball home with a clever left-foot shot
from a tight angle.
The champions, who have won all four of their Bundesliga
games this year without injured playmaker Mario Gotze, are now
unbeaten in 15 straight league games since early September.
The result lifted Dortmund to 46 points from 21 games, still
two ahead of Bayern, with Leverkusen stuck in sixth place on 31
and looking lacklustre ahead of their Champions League round of
16 first leg against Barcelona on Tuesday.
Surprise package Borussia Monchengladbach moved above
visitors Schalke 04 into third on 43 points after taking them
apart in a 3-0 win with Marco Reus, Mike Hanke and Juan Arango
on target before the break. Schalke are fourth with 41.
"I am very satisfied with the way we played because I knew
it would be hard," Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp told reporters.
"Leverkusen were very organised and worked hard but we put in a
solid home performance against a tough-defending opponent."
Bundesliga top scorer Mario Gomez headed Bayern into a sixth
minute lead with his 18th league goal of the season and Thomas
Muller added a second with another powerful header on the
half-hour.
UPWARD TREND
The Bavarians, who also reached the German Cup semi-finals
in midweek and are also still in the Champions league, seem to
have recovered from an erratic start to the year following one
win in their previous three games.
"We have confirmed our upward trend," said Bayern coach Jupp
Heynckes, whose team started with winger Arjen Robben on the
bench for the second consecutive game.
"It was a fully deserved win. We again kept a clean sheet. I
am especially satisfied with the way we defended."
Mid-table VfB Stuttgart crushed 10-man Hertha Berlin 5-0
with four goals in a 17-minute spell in the first half to put
visiting coach Michael Skibbe under more pressure after his
team's fifth defeat in his five games in charge.
The Berlin side are 15th, two places and three points above
the automatic relegation spots.
Hoffenheim's new coach Markus Babbel, sacked by Hertha in
December, thought he would celebrate a winning debut until
Werder Bremen's Marko Arnautovic snatched a 90th-minute goal to
earn his side a 1-1 draw.
Hannover 96 also had to wait until the end to spoil Mainz
05's afternoon with Artur Sobiech equalising in the 89th minute
to secure a 1-1 draw.