Werder Bremen beat Hansa Rostock 3-0 on Tuesday to make sure of spending the winter break as Bundesliga leader and Bayern Munich routed Freiburg 6-0 to move into second place.
Stuttgart or Bayer Leverkusen, which clash today, could still leapfrog over Bayern when the final round before the break is completed.
PHOTO: EPA
In other matches Tuesday, Cologne moved from the bottom of the standings by beating Hertha Berlin 3-0 and Eintracht Frankfurt dropped to last place by losing 3-2 at home to Hamburger SV, after coming back from a two-goal deficit and then wasting a late penalty.
The club that led at the halfway mark also won the title in 27 of the previous 40 Bundesliga seasons and Bremen now looks well positioned to earn its first championship in 10 years.
The season halts after Wednesday's five games and resumes Jan. 31.
Bremen had a quick start, with Ailton using a dreadful Rostock defensive error to shoot his team ahead after four minutes and raise his league-high tally to 16 goals.
Rostock then wasted several chances before Bremen regained control in the second half.
Bremen defender Valerien Ismael headed in a free-kick cross from Krisztian Lisztes in the 78th and celebrated by putting on a Santa Claus hat.
Lisztes, left alone on the right, fired inside the far post to complete the victory in the 89th.
Although missing star midfielder Michael Ballack and several other starters, Bayern romped to an unexpectedly easy win in Freiburg behind two goals by Roy Makaay.
Bayern went ahead after seven minutes when midfielder Martin Demichelis rose to head in a corner from Ze Roberto for his first Bundesliga goal.
In the 23rd, Freiburg goalkeeper Richard Golz couldn't control a free kick by Makaay and Hasan Salihamidzic pounced on the rebound to make it 2-0.
Less than five minutes later, Makaay collected the ball with the outside of his right foot and then shot it under Golz with his left for 3-0.
Claudio Pizarro continued the rout in the 61st, stooping to head in a cross form Willy Sagnol.
Six minutes later, Makaay capitalized on another Freiburg error to raise his season total to 10 goals and put Bayern 5-0 ahead. A quick break by Bayern produced the sixth in the 87th from Piotr Trochowski.
In Frankfurt, Stefan Beinlich drove home a left-footed volley from 20m out after a Frankfurt mistake to put the visitors ahead 17 minutes into the match.
The leaky Frankfurt defense failed to clear a corner in the 52nd and Japanese striker Naohiro Takahara connected to make it 2-0. But less than a minute later, Eintracht was back in the match with a near carbon-copy goal. This time, Hamburg defenders watched a free kick by Ervin Skela sail a long time, bounce off the ground and inside the far post.
In the 66th, Cha Du-ri played a backheel pass in the Hamburg box to Markus Beierle, who slammed the ball into the roof of the net to equalize.
But with five minutes remaining, Sergej Barbarez used an overhead pass from Beinlich to finish a Hamburg fast break by heading in his team's winner.
With the match going into its final minute, Skela had his penalty saved by Hamburg goalkeeper Stefan Waechter, who read the shot and dived to his left to prevent Eintracht from coming back again.
Less than a minute into the second half in Cologne, striker Andrei Voronin shook off two Hertha defenders to slot home his team's opening goal.
Two minutes later, Hertha goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly made a good save to deny Voronin another goal.
In the 72, Hertha was left with 10 men after the expulsion of Nando Rafael and three minutes later Lukas Podolski, an 18-year-old newcomer, scored his second goal in two games to secure Cologne's victory. In the 87th, Kiraly advanced far from his line for no good reason and Matthias Scherz added the third by lobbing the goalkeeper.
It was Cologne's first victory under new coach Marcel Koller, who took over the club six weeks ago.
English League Cup
Arsenal ended West Bromwich Albion's giant-killing run in the League Cup with a 2-0 quarterfinal victory at the Hawthorns on Tuesday.
Nwankwo Kanu fired the Gunners ahead after 25 minutes and Jeremie Aliadiere capitalized on a rare blunder by West Brom 'keeper Russell Hoult for the second in the 56th against a West Brom team which had knocked out Newcastle and Manchester United in the previous two rounds.
In Tuesday's other quarterfinal Danish forward Henrik Pedersen scored the winner five minutes from the end of extra time as Bolton edged Southampton 1-0.
Wednesday's quarterfinals are Aston Villa-Chelsea and Tottenham-Middlesbrough.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger kept faith with many of the young players who had played in previous rounds but still had experienced stars such as Sylvain Wiltord, Martin Keown, Ray Parlour, Lauren, Edu and Kanu on the field for a match between the leaders of the Premier League and division one.
"I think we had just the right mixture tonight," Wenger said.
"West Brom put us under a lot of pressure and never gave anything away and I have a lot of respect for what they did. We really needed to be focused for 90 minutes and take our chances to go through."
The Baggies were hit by the absence of their top outfield player, Welsh international Jason Koumas, who missed the game with a hamstring injury and the result means that have not beaten Arsenal at home since 1973.
"We got nothing because we made a really poor mistake in the first half defending," said West Brom manager Gary Megson.
"That kind of quality is always going to find the spare man and that is what they did. The second goal and the manner in which it came about really took the wind out of our sails. You can't play like that and expect to get away with it.
"I think if we had scored first it might have made things different."
The Gunners, who last won the League Cup 10 years ago, survived some early scares before breaking out to take the lead with their first attempt on goal.
Arsenal 'keeper Graham Stack fumbled a Neil Clement free kick, Martin Keown was twice lucky to escape penalty appeals and James O'Connor had the ball in the Gunners net only for it to be dubiously ruled out for offside.
The goal came from a right wing cross from Lauren who found Kanu unmarked in front of goal. Although Hoult did well to block the lanky Nigerian's header, Kanu prodded the rebound between the 'keeper and the post.
Stack made up for his earlier mistake by pushing an overhead shot from Rob Hulse round the post as West Brom tried to hit back.
The second half started 10 minutes late because one of the linesmen suffered a calf muscle injury in the first half and officials had to find a fourth official. Luckily, veteran referee Dermot Gallagher happened to be at the game and stepped in.
Stack raced out to make another save when Hulse got clear of the Gunners defense in the 49th minute and then Lee Hughes fired over the bar with just the 'keeper to beat.
But an amazing blunder by Albion 'keeper Hoult handed the Gunners a second goal in the 56th minute.
A standout player for West Brom for the past three seasons, he collected a backpass and played it straight to Aliadiere who had the simplest job of rolling the ball into an empty net.
There was another injury worry for the officials when referee Matt Messias had to go off for treatment for a calf muscle problem with the second half only 18 minutes old. He was able to resume after two minutes.
Although the Gunners had more of the play after the second goal, Albion, who had 10 corners to Arsenal's none, showed signs of hitting back when Scott Dobie rattled the crossbar six minutes from the end.
Then Hughes climbed to meet a well floated cross from Macedonian midfielder Artim Sakiri only for his header to flash just wide of the near post.
At the Reebok Stadium, Southampton 'keeper Antti Niemi made a series of saves to keep out shots from Jay Jay Okocha, Pedersen and Stelios Giannakopoulos while Wanderers' Bruno N'Gotty and Mario Jardel also missed chances.
After Youri Djorkaeff had a goal ruled out for offside, Niemi was beaten in the 115th minute when Anthony Barness drove in a cross and Pedersen turned the ball home at the far post.
Saints almost equalized when Paul Telfer fired in a shot which Bolton's 40-year-old 'keeper Kevin Poole, in his 19th season as a pro, pushed onto the crossbar.
Italian Cup
Perugia, fired by goals by Christian Obodo, Soulemayne Diamoutene and Jay Bothroyd, reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup on a 3-0 home win over Chievo in a third-round, second leg match that improved its aggregate to 4-2.
Obodo, a 19-year-old Nigerian midfielder, evened the score from a 2-1 first-leg loss at Chievo with a perfect header off a corner kick in the 42nd minute.
Diamoutene made it two kicking in a rebound in the 61st. Bothroyd, a British striker who joined Perugia in the off season, sealed victory and qualification for the home team with a diagonal shot six minutes later.
Chievo squandered a couple of first-half scoring chances with Sergio Pellissier and Argentine Mario Alberto Santana.
Perugia-Chievo was the first of eight second-leg matches scheduled between Tuesday and tomorrow.
Today it's Parma versus Venezia, Lazio versus Modena, Palermo versus AS Roma and Reggina versus Inter Milan.
On Thursday defending champion AC Milan, coming off a bitter loss to Boca Juniors in the Intercontinental Cup, takes on Sampdoria at San Siro, Juventus plays Siena and Bologna is at Udinese.
Milan, Roma, Lazio, Juventus and Inter Milan all take first-leg wins into upcoming matches.
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