Bayern Munich moved a step closer to the Bundesliga title on Saturday as they beat Augsburg 2-0 and extended their lead over two-time reigning champions Borussia Dortmund to 14 points.
Thomas Mueller and Mario Gomez scored in Bayern’s victory, while 10-man Dortmund lost 3-2 at home to VfL Wolfsburg.
Munich jumped to 41 points, while Dortmund remained on 27, one game before the winter break.
Photo: Reuters
Second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen had 30 points before they traveled to Hannover 96 yesterday.
Bayern dominated the proceedings in Augsburg and grabbed the lead in the 40th minute from the penalty spot through Mueller after Gibril Sankoh had handled Toni Kroos’ pass.
Gomez doubled the advantage in the 62nd minute, just two minutes after coming into the game to decide the contest.
“Three points, so it was a nice Saturday,” Bayern captain Philipp Lahm said.
“In order to win the championship, we have to win these kinds of games and we did that,” Gomez added.
In Dortmund, Juergen Klopp’s hosts went ahead from a Marco Reus free-kick in the sixth minute.
Wolfsburg equalized in the 36th minute from the spot through Diego one minute after Marcel Schmelzer was red-carded for stopping Bas Dost’s shot on the line with his hand, although replays showed the defender blocked the ball with his knee.
Wolfsburg took the lead in the 41st minute when Naldo volleyed home Diego’s free-kick.
Jakub Blaszczykowski converted a penalty in the 61st minute as Dortmund pulled even at 2-2, but Dost re-established Wolfsburg’s lead in the 73rd minute.
“I am satisfied with our performance, but the result hurts us a lot,” Klopp said. “It decided the game because we had to play the final 54 minutes a man down. Still, we had more possession and still felt we could win, but it was difficult to maintain a high energy level.”
Eintracht Frankfurt scored twice within a minute to snap a three-game winless streak with a 4-1 victory at home against Werder Bremen to improve to 27 points.
Alex Meier made it 1-0 in the 47th minute for Frankfurt and Nils Petersen equalized seven minutes later, but Pirmin Schwegler and Stefan Aigner both scored in the 63rd minute for Frankfurt, and Takashi Inui added the final strike in the 90th minute as Bremen remained on 21 points.
Schalke 04 failed to win their fifth straight match and saw Frankfurt pass them in the table with a 3-1 loss at VfB Stuttgart thanks to Vedad Ibisevic’s hat-trick.
Stuttgart, who pulled even with Schalke on 25 points, stormed ahead after two minutes through Ibisevic, before Schalke equalized in the 12th minute though Ciprian Marica.
Ibisevic gave Stuttgart the lead from the penalty spot in the 38th minute and completed his hat-trick after 61 minutes.
Both teams finished with 10 men as Gotoku Sakai of Stuttgart and Schalke’s Jermaine Jones were sent off.
Also on Saturday, Sebastian Polter and Markus Feulner scored to give Nuremberg a 2-0 win over Fortuna Duesseldorf, while SC Freiburg won 1-0 over bottom club SpVgg Greuther Furth thanks to Daniel Caligiuri’s goal in the 15th minute.
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