Werder Bremen beat Hamburg 2-1 to jump to the top of the German league table on Saturday.
Bremen have 33 points to Bayern's 31 but Bayern had a game in hand. Hamburg are third with 30.
Against a Hamburg side who are serious title challengers, Bremen held on with a winner from Finnish defender Petri Pasanen midway through the second half.
Ivory Coast's Boubacar Sanogo put Bremen ahead on the quarter-hour after good work by Jurica Vranjes though Hamburg's Rafael van der Vaart equalized on 61 minutes with a superb 25m lob.
Then came Pasanen's winner though it was helped into the net by Hamburg defender Vincent Kompany, meaning Werder took top spot for the first time this season.
Bremen continued their good form from mid September, leaving them unbeaten in their last 10 league outings, even though they were without key players Torsten Frings and Tim Borowski.
Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf said afterwards: "We have managed to get through a difficult week very well," adding his team had been top of their game for several weeks now.
Hamburg coach Huub Stevens also congratulated Bremen.
"The best team won -- the freshest team physically too," said Stevens, whose team beat Rennes in the UEFA Cup 48 hours earlier.
Bayern meanwhile have not been at their best recently and could only manage a 1-1 draw against Portuguese side Braga in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
Captain and keeper Oliver Kahn said he regretted a "lack of passion" shown by his teammates.
However Bayer Leverkusen have been gaining victory after victory lately and are approaching the leading trio. Leverkusen beat Hertha Berlin 3-0, leaving them six points behind the leaders.
At the other end of the table, Energie Cottbus beat Karlsruhe 2-0 to leave Duisburg bottom.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS