Bayern Munich took a significant step closer to the
Bundesliga title on Saturday, without even playing a domestic fixture.
Pep Guardiola's men - contesting the FIFA Club World Cup
final in Morocco - will have been boosted by news from home that both Borussia
Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen suffered league defeats against Hertha Berlin and
Werder Bremen respectively.
The results leave Bayern seven points clear at the summit
with a game in hand over their closest rivals.
In Dortmund, Marco Reus got the game off to the best
possible start for Jurgen Klopp's side as he slotted home in the seventh
minute, but Adrian Ramos pulled the visitors level from close range midway
through the first period.
A Marian Sarr error on the stroke of half-time allowed
Sami Allagui to turn the match on its head and leave Dortmund trailing 2-1 at
the interval.
Neither side was able to find the back of the net after
the break as the hosts succumbed to their third successive home defeat in the
league for the first time since March 2000.
With just one win from five Bundesliga outings, Dortmund
will be feeling the pressure, but, on a bad day for the division's leading
clubs, Leverkusen were unable to take advantage of that slip-up as they fell to
a second successive reverse.
Sami Hyypia's charges looked second best throughout in a
1-0 defeat to Bremen as Santiago Garcia's 75th-minute strike proved to be the
difference between the sides.
In an eventful clash at the Imtech Arena, 10-man Hamburg
fell to a third straight leage defeat after conceding a stoppage-time goal to
lose 3-2 against Mainz.
The hosts went ahead in the 21st minute through Hakan
Calhanoglou before Shinji Okazaki and Nicolai Muller gave Mainz the lead within
five minutes of the start of the second half.
Rafael van der Vaart appeared to have at least rescued a
point 11 minutes from time, but Tomas Rincon's dismissal for a second bookable
offence three minutes later was followed by a Mainz injury-time winner from
Okazaki.
Elsewhere, 10-man Eintracht Braunschweig momentarily
pulled themselves off the bottom of the league with a 1-0 victory over
Hoffenheim, but now sit at the foot of the table on goal difference following
Nuremberg's goalless draw with Schalke, who missed the opportunity to climb to
fifth.
Freiburg also picked up a vital three points as Admir
Mehmedi's first-half double inspired them to a 2-1 win against Hannover.
Culled from Soccerway
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