Bundesliga: Bayern, Wolfsburg cement top spots
Berlin, Dec 7 German league front-runners Bayern Munich beat Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 to maintain their seven-point lead while second-placed Wolfsburg clinched a 3-1 victory over Hannover in the 14th round of the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich reaped their 11th triumph from 14 games as they defeated Leverkusen with a narrow 1-0 win on home soil Saturday, reports Xinhua.
It was a hard-earned victory for the German giants as Leverkusen posed a lot of threat, yet they failed to turn promising opportunities into tangible rewards.
Leverkusen's Karim Bellarabi almost capitalised on a wrong clearance by Jerome Boateng but defender Juan Bernat effected a goal-line save to deny the visitors.
Leverkusen had another promising opportunity through Stefan Kiessling, who was unable to connect Heung Ming Son's shot from a sharp angle.
Bayern took control of the match at the second half and increased the pressure before Franck Ribery broke the deadlock in the 51st minute to score his 100th goal for his club. Xabi Alonso flicked on Rafinha's cross and Ribery was able to tap in from close range.
It remained the only goal of the encounter as Leverkusen lacked in offensive power to threat Bayern's defence in the second half. With the loss, Leverkusen slipped from the 3rd to the 4th position.
Wolfsburg secured the second place in the standings following a 3-1 victory over Hannover at the Lower Saxony derby.
They wasted no time in opening the scoring as Ivan Perisic's through ball found Kevin De Bruyne, who slotted home in the 4th minute.
The hosts were shocked by the deficit but they responded just before the break through Joselu, whose diving header restored parity.
After the restart both sides neutralised their offensive threats. Things changed with the fielding of Wolfsburg's substitute Bas Dost in he 67th minute, who secured his side a 2-1 lead two minutes after his introduction.
Wolfsburg had another ace in their ranks as Maximilian Arnold came off the bench in the 82nd minute to seal the match three minutes later, making use of a through ball from Ivan Perisic.
Wolfsburg now have 29 points while Hannover remained on the 8th position.
Schalke wrapped up their first away win under new coach Robert Di Matteo as they pumped in four goals past Stuttgart.
Striker Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting ensured a bright start for the visitors when he broke the deadlock just 53 second into the game. The Cameroon international made use of Tranquillo Barnetta' s free kick into the box to slot home a right footer from seven meters.
Schalke gave relegation threatened Stuttgart no time to recover from the early setback as Max Meyer headed home to put his team 2-0 up nine minutes later.
Stuttgart were unable to gain a foothold into the game after the early blows and Schalke tripled the lead through Choupo-Moting who wrapped up his brace by heading home Barnetta' s corner kick in the 21st minute.
The third goal within 21 minutes killed the contest and Choupo-Moting extendsed Stuttgart's misery, sealing his hat-trick by a header in the 61st minute.
With the result Schalke record their 7th win of the season to climb to the 5th place while Stuttgart slumped to the bottom spot of the league table.
Elsewhere, Augsburg turned the tides against newly promoted Cologne with two second-half goals to win 2-1 on the road.
Borussia Monchengladbach stopped their run of three winless games in row as they overcame Berlin 3-2 on home soil and newly-promoted Paderborn snatched a 1-1 draw against Freiburg.