Bayern Munich ground out a 3-1 win at VfB Stuttgart and provisionally opened an eight-point lead to move closer to an unprecedented fourth straight Bundesliga title on Saturday.
“We need another three wins and a draw to achieve something very special, something no team in Germany has ever achieved,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said.
An own-goal from Georg Niedermeier got the defending champions underway in the 31st minute and David Alaba made it 2-0 in the 52nd.
Photo: AP
Daniel Didavi pulled one back in unorthodox fashion in the 63rd minute, scooping the ball while on the ground over the helpless Manuel Neuer. Didavi did not have time to get up from his previous attempt.
Bayern substitute Douglas Costa sealed it in the 89th minute with a shot inside the left post.
Borussia Dortmund could restore the five-point gap yesterday with a win at Schalke 04 in the Ruhr derby. Five rounds remain after the weekend’s games.
“I always watch Bundesliga on Sundays, but I rely on Bayern Munich and not Borussia Dortmund,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said.
Visiting FSV Mainz 05 held VfL Wolfsburg to a 1-1 draw in the late game, extending the hosts’ league run without a win to four games.
Andre Schuerrle put Wolfsburg ahead on a counterattack in the 53rd minute, before Jairo Samperio displayed fine technique and composure to equalize 13 minutes later.
Wolfsburg take a 2-0 lead to Real Madrid for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tomorrow.
Moritz Hartmann scored late for Ingolstadt 04 to shock Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0 and deal a blow to the visitors’ hopes of Champions League soccer.
Moenchengladbach, in fourth place, could be overtaken by Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Schalke 04 by the end of the weekend.
Ingolstadt, the only side to win at home on Saturday, look certain to survive their first Bundesliga season.
“We always spoke of 40 points, but I think we won’t be relegated with 39 either,” Ingolstadt coach Ralph Hasenhuettl said.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 to climb four points above the hosts in the relegation zone, while SV Darmstadt 98 won 2-1 at Hamburg SV to boost their chances of avoiding an immediate return to the second division.
“It was an incredibly important game, but we still have a few [left]. Nothing’s decided yet,” said Darmstadt midfielder Konstantin Rausch, whose side are a point above 14th-placed Hoffenheim.
Augsburg came from behind to win at Werder Bremen 2-1 and move to 15th — two points above Bremen in the relegation playoff place.
Guardiola made four changes to the side that played SL Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday, with Rafinha, Javi Martinez, Xabi Alonso and Mario Goetze starting in place of Philipp Lahm, Thiago Alcantara, Douglas Costa and Thomas Mueller.
Mueller only got a short rest, coming on in the 27th minute for Arturo Vidal, who was on a yellow card and was lucky to have avoided another.
“I didn’t want to take any risk,” Guardiola said.
Neuer made a brilliant save to deny Didavi early on. Didavi, whose Stuttgart contract expires at the end of the season, is joining Wolfsburg in the summer.
It was the best chance before Niedermeier turned Franck Ribery’s cross for Robert Lewandowski inside his own goal with the help of a deflection from Stuttgart goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton.
Alaba gave the visitors some breathing space, displaying good ball control to nutmeg Toni Sunjic before beating Tyton at his near post.
Didavi got the home fans off their seats with his unusual goal and Thiago forced Tyton into an outstanding save to tip his effort onto the crossbar, before Costa finally settled the issue.
In Hamburg, where Darmstadt had not played since 1981, Aytac Sulu headed the visitors into a 38th-minute lead and Jerome Gondorf made it 2-0 on a counterattack in the 54th.
Lewis Holtby’s stoppage-time reply was much too late for Hamburg.
Bremen were missing top-scorer Claudio Pizarro, who had almost as many Bundesliga goals (188) by himself as Augsburg had before the game (194), due to a stomach injury.
Florian Grillitsch scored before the break to give Bremen a deserved halftime lead, but Alfred Finnbogason equalized with the visitors’ first chance in the 53rd minute and Hong Jeong-ho scored late for Augsburg.
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