Bayern Munich’s 2-0 win at Schalke 04 fired the Bavarian giants back to the top of the Bundesliga on Sunday, while champions Borussia Dortmund suffered a second straight defeat as they lost 2-1 at Hannover 96.
Bayern are two points clear at the top of the table after six games and have now gone eight games without conceding a goal, thanks mainly to former Schalke goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, who remains unbeaten for 748 minutes.
With Germany striker Mario Gomez out with a groin injury, new Bayern signing Nils Petersen took his chance and put his side ahead on 21 minutes after some good work by France winger Franck Ribery.
Photo: Reuters
Bayern made sure of the win when Germany midfielder Thomas Mueller took advantage of some sloppy Schalke defending to score the second on 75 minutes.
“That was another strong performance from my team,” Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said. “The second half was our best 45 minutes of the season.”
As expected, former Schalke captain Neuer had a hostile reception on his first return to Gelsenkirchen with Munich since leaving die Konigsblauen.
Photo: EPA
As well as constant whistles, Schalke fans chanted “Judas” and one banner read: “We mourn M Neuer — who died between 2005-2011 — resurrected as a spineless puppet.”
“That was tasteless,” Heynckes said. “Manuel doesn’t deserve treatment like that.”
Neuer said he was not surprised by the response.
“I knew what to expect, these are emotional fans,” he said. “I had expected I might get something like this and had prepared myself for it.”
Dortmund’s poor start to the season continued as they were floored by two late goals in two minutes, with Ivory Coast striker Didier Ya Konan netting the winner to seal Hannover’s victory.
Having been beaten at home by Hertha BSC Berlin last Saturday, it was Dortmund’s third loss against two wins in six games this season, leaving Jurgen Klopp’s young team in 11th place.
Japan winger Shinji Kagawa put Dortmund 1-0 up on 63 minutes, before Hannover captain Karim Haggui crashed home his header on 87 minutes to level.
With the Dortmund defense reeling, Ya Konan fired home to give Hannover their third win of the season on 89 minutes.
In a frantic finish, Hannover’s Polish striker Artur Sobiech was shown a straight red card for tackling Dortmund’s Brazilian midfielder Antonio da Silva from behind just before the final whistle.
It was the fifth red card of the weekend to set a new Bundesliga record.
Having now lost to TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, Hertha and Hannover, Klopp’s side are struggling to defend their title and are already six points off leaders Werder Bremen.
“This defeat feels nasty,” Klopp said. “From the 75th minute, we threw a good game away. We did a lot going forward, but it is our fault that we didn’t manage to get the victory. This is no false start, but we are not happy and we have too few points.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but