Bundesliga round-up: Bayern beat Augsburg to set new record, Dortmund beaten by Olic wonder-strike
Bayern Munich 3-0 Augsburg
Thomas Mueller (L) of Bayern Muenchen winks as he celebrates his penalty goal with teammate Jerome Boateng during the Bundesliga match between FC Bayern Muenchen and FC Augsburg at Allianz Arena
Bayern Munich continued their relentless run in the Bundesliga to set a new record when they beat Augsburg 3-0 at home on Saturday. Franck Ribery had another dominating performance for the German and European champions as they ran out comfortable winners.
Defender Jerome Boateng opened the scoring for the hosts inside four minutes as he struck a beautiful half-volley from an over-hit corner to find the top corner of the net. The visitors simply had no answer to Bayern’s high-tempo game and the home team had their chances, especially Mario Mandzukic and Ribery, to double the lead early on.
Ribery though did score just before half-time when he dispatched a free-kick from the edge of the box in emphatic fashion.
Bayern looked to be dropping off a bit in the second half before the introduction of Arjen Robben added helped change that. Robben though, missed a chance from close range when he hit David Alaba’s nicely squared pass wide from just a few yards out.
Deep into injury time, Bayern got their third when Thomas Müller scored a penalty after the ball was handled in the penalty area.
With the win, Bayern have now gone 37 games unbeaten in the Bundesliga, eclipsing the previous record of 36 set by Hamburg. The Bavarian giants have not lost in the Bundesliga in almost a year since their defeat to Bayer Leverkusen.
Man of the match: Franck Ribery
Wolfsburg 2-1 Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller (R) fails to save a kick by Wolfsburg’s Ivica Olic of Croatia (not in picture) during the German first division Bundesliga football match VfL Wolfsburg vs Borussia Dortmund at the Volkswagen arena in Wolfsburg
Bayern’s position at the top of the table was further strengthened as their closest rivals Dortmund suffered a 1-2 defeat away at the hands of Wolfsburg.
It meant successive losses for Jürgen Klopp’s team who were beaten 1-0 at home midweek by Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League.
Dortmund in fact took the lead when they went ahead in first half stoppage time from a Marco Reus free-kick. That set the game up nicely for the second half and it turned out to be an end-to-end affair as Wolfsburg mounted an offensive to try and get back in the game.
Ricardo Rodriguez equalized on 56 minutes to bring Wolfsburg back in the game and on 69 minutes the home side went ahead as former Bayern Munich man, Croatian striker Ivica Olic, struck a superb curling effort to beat Roman Weidenfeller in the Dortmund goal.
Dortmund’s Polish striker Robert Lewandowski had two penalty appeals turned down in the second half as Klopp’s team crashed to their second successive loss.
“It was a game with, let’s say, lots of players on the floor and lots of free kicks. In some situations, everything went against us,” said Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp. “They could have given us one of the two penalties.”
To make matters worse, it was learned after the match, that their Serbian central defender Neven Subotic would be out for at least six months with torn ligaments in his right knee. Subotic was taken off mid-game after he suffered the injury during a tussle for the ball with Olic.
Man of the match: Ricardo Rodriguez
Bayer Leverkusen 5-3 Hamburg SV
Heung-Min Son of Bayer Leverkusen celebrates his third goal during the Bundesliga match between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburger SV at BayArena
Sami Hyypia’s Bayer Leverkusen came out on top in a crazy eight-goal thriller at the Bayer Arena against Bert van Marwijk’s Hamburg side.
And the hero on the day for Leverkusen was Korean striker Son Heung-Min, who had joined them from Hamburg in the summer.
The action started as early as the 9th minute when Son scored and he added another in the next seven minutes to have Leverkusen leading 2-0 in under 20 minutes.
Hamburg came right back in the match as Maximilian Beister got one back in the 23rd minute. The teams went into halftime at 2-1 to the home side, but it was soon 2-2 as Pierre-Michel Lasogga leveled things up four minutes after the restart.
Son soon had his hat-trick and Leverkusen were had their lead again as the Korean found the net with a coolly-taken goal and soon it was 4-2 as Son turned provider for Stefan Kiessling to extend the home side’s lead.
Lasogga pulled another one back for Hamburg, but Gonzalo Castro landed a fifth in the 89th minute to put the game beyond reach.
Man of the match: Son Heung Min
Schalke 3-1 Werder Bremen
Kevin-Prince Boateng of Schalke celebrates after scoring his team’s 2nd goal during the Bundesliga match between FC Schalke 04 and Werder Bremen at Veltins-Arena
Schalke came from behind after conceding an early goal to emerge 3-1 winners against Werder Bremen. Kevin-Prince Boateng scored with two headers in the second half to get the hosts back in contention and give them the lead after they fell behind on 22 minutes to a Felix Kroos goal. Jefferson Farfan added the third for Schalke.
Julian Draxler had a superb game for Schalke as he provided two assists and was a major threat when it came to creating goal-scoring opportunities.
Man of the match: Julian Draxler
Other results
Hannover 96 0-0 Braunschweig
Hoffenheim 2-3 Hertha Berlin
Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 Nurnberg