Mid-table Nuremberg upset Borussia Moenchengladbach with a late goal to claim a 1-0 win and deny the visitors the chance to move second in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Albert Bunjaku scored the winner three minutes from time — and three minutes after coming on as a substitute — when Alexander Esswein pulled the ball back for the Swiss striker to crash a shot under the crossbar.
Philipp Wollscheid instigated the move by dispossessing Moen-chengladbach midfielder Juan Arango and sending Esswein through on the left.
“When you score the winner in the 87th minute, it’s a lucky punch,” Nuremberg coach Dieter Hecking said after his side consolidated their mid-table position. “There’s a bit of relief there now.”
Lukas Podolski salvaged a 1-1 draw for Cologne at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim in the late game when he scored in the 81st minute to break his side’s three-game losing streak.
Hoffenheim defender Marvin Compper had put the home side in front in the 33rd minute with a powerful header from a corner, 20 minutes after Hoffenheim midfielder Boris Vukcevic’s strike was ruled offside.
Sven Schipplock should have scored for Hoffenheim in the 63rd minute when Cologne defender Christian Eichner blocked his shot on the line and Schipplock then crashed the rebound off the crossbar.
“In our situation, you’re happy with the little things,” Eichner said.
Podolski has now scored 16 of Cologne’s 31 league goals, with Miso Brecko crossing for the Germany international to send a glancing header inside the far post.
In Nuremberg, Moenchengladbach’s attacking threat was largely nullified by the home side’s tightly packed defense, with Marco Reus, Mike Hanke and Arango all enduring a frustrating afternoon.
“We’re not machines, so you can also lose a game sometimes,” Reus said.
Reus drew a save from Raphael Schaefer in the fourth minute, two minutes before Mike Hanke stung the goalkeeper’s hands, but chances for both sides proved scarce thereafter.
Havard Nordtveit should have put Moenchengladbach ahead in the 41st minute when Reus sent him through, but the Norwegian hesitated and lost possession.
Moenchengladbach goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen denied US international defender Timmy Chandler at the near post and then produced a flying save to keep out Markus Feulner’s long-range effort, but there was nothing he could do to prevent Bunjaku’s first league goal for almost two years after a season and a half marred by injury.
“We lost the ball unnecessarily too many times and we’re not playing as well as two weeks ago,” ’Gladbach coach Lucien Favre said.
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