Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen dropped another point when they were held to a goalless draw at Hannover 96 on Saturday, but remain four points clear as Bayern Munich continued their rise up the table.
Jupp Heynckes’ undefeated Leverkusen have now drawn five of their last seven games.
“We were missing something today,” said Heynckes.
“We lacked precision in our passing and we were not so certain in midfield. We missed some good chances to score and the result is fair for both sides,” he said.
VfB Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel was robbed of his first league win since September by a stunning goal from VfL Bochum on Saturday.
The home side were denied their chance to escape the bottom three and grab only their third Bundesliga win of the season after Bochum’s Austria defender Christian Fuchs beat Jens Lehmann with a stunning free-kick.
The ex-Germany goalkeeper was left red-faced when Fuchs curled his effort over the Stuttgart wall and into the back of the net to leave the home side third from bottom.
Germany defender Serdar Tasci’s second-half header looked to have lifted Stuttgart out of the bottom three and seal their first league win since September 26 to ease some of the pressure on Babbel.
His side must beat Romania’s Unirea Urziceni at home on Wednesday to progress from Group G in the Champions League behind Sevilla and Babbel will find out in the winter break if he will keep his job.
Defending champions VfL Wolfsburg needed a late goal to seal a 2-2 draw with Freiburg on Saturday as they prepare for tomorrow’s crunch home Champions League match against Manchester United, which they must win to progress.
Freiburg took the lead when Cameroon striker Mohamadou Idrissou netted after only 19 minutes, but Wolves equalized when Freiburg’s 21-year-old defender Felix Bastians headed into his own net.
Wolfsburg’s Germany defender Marcel Schaefer hauled down Freiburg’s Daniel Caligiuri and Croatia midfielder Ivica Banovic slotted home the penalty on 51 minutes.
But Wolfsburg’s Fabian Johnson scored on only his fourth appearance two minutes from time to give his side a valuable point.
On Saturday, mid-table Eintracht Frankfurt beat 10-man Mainz 05 2-0 thanks to a first-half strike from defender Maik Franz and a late goal by Alexander Meier. Franz is notorious for clashes with opposing forwards, and his clash with Algeria forward Chadli Amri led to the striker’s second yellow card and the subsequent red on 68 minutes.
Frankfurt made sure of the three points when midfielder Meier netted in the 90th minute.
Borussia Dortmund moved up to seventh in the Bundesliga table and did their goal difference tally the world of good when they hammered Nuremberg 4-0.
Hamburg SV were held to a goalless draw at home to Hoffenheim.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB