Germany striker Miroslav Klose struck just four minutes from time to give defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich a 1-0 win over Karlsruhe on Saturday — their first victory in four league games.
Klose converted Italian defender Massimo Oddo’s cross on 86 minutes to give Jurgen Klinsmann’s side three league points for the first time this month, despite another unimpressive performance.
“From our point of view, the result is gratifying — of course it was important to get the three points,” Klinsmann said. “Even if we had to wait a long, long time, at least we got the result. We threatened with a goal earlier in the game and it was such a relief that someone finally got the ball over the line.”
PHOTO: AFP
Bayern last picked up three points in a Bundesliga game on Sept. 13 when they hammered Cologne 3-0. Since then the gloss on Jurgen Klinsmann’s first season in charge has faded badly after Werder Bremen hammered his side 5-2 at home on Sept. 20 and then they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at minnows Hanover the following week.
Cries of “Klinsmann out” were first heard around Munich’s Allianz Arena in their previous league game on Oct. 4, when a poor VfL Bochum side were allowed to score two goals in the last 10 minutes to poach a 3-3 draw.
Despite their first-half domination in Karlsruhe, Bayern could not break down the home defense and lost striker Luca Toni, the league’s top scorer last season, with bruised ribs after 40 minutes to be replaced by Lukas Podolski. And another of Munich’s top attacking options from last season was substituted on 59 minutes when Klinsmann switched France midfielder Franck Ribery for Germany’s Tim Borowski.
With Karlsruhe unable to create any chances and Bayern seemingly unable to convert theirs, it looked like the game was heading toward a 0-0 draw until Klose struck. But Klinsmann’s side will need to do much better against Fiorentina in tomorrow night’s Champions League game in Munich.
Hoffenheim went top of the league with a flurry of late goals to seal a 5-2 victory at 10-man Hanover, which put them level with Hamburg but leading the table on goal difference.
Two goals from Hoffenheim’s Vedad Ibisevic led the charge and made the Bosnia-Herzegovina striker the league’s top scorer with nine so far this season.
Also on Saturday, Bayer Leverkusen moved up one place to third in the league thanks to their 2-0 win at Eintracht Frankfurt. Striker Patrick Helmes scored his eighth league goal of the season when he converted a penalty after just six minutes and a 61st minute header from Chilean midfielder Arturo Vidal sealed the win.
VfB Stuttgart drop from third to sixth in the table after losing 2-1 in the German capital against Hertha Berlin.
Wolfsburg picked up their first league win for nearly a month as midfielder Zvjezdan Misimovic netted first-half goals as the home side routed Arminia Bielefeld 4-1 to put Felix Magath’s side fifth in the league, up from ninth.
Ten-man Energie Cottbus lost 1-0 at Cologne to stay in the bottom three, while Borussia Dortmund scored in injury time to seal a 3-3 draw at Werder Bremen.
On Friday night, Borussia Munchengladbach drew 2-2 at VfL Bochum.
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