Hamburg top as Bayern lose again

September 28, 2008

VFL Wolfsburg failed to take their opportunity to move to third place in the Bundesliga as they went down 2-1 to Karlsruhe on Sunday in a weekend that saw reigning champions Bayern Munich slump to a second successive league defeat.

Fresh off a midweek 7-0 thumping of minnows Oberneuland in the DFB Pokal, Wolfsburg lost for the first time in 10 games after Karlsruhe midfielder Massimilian Porcello curled in a free-kick on 51 minutes to take a 1-0 lead.

Their day got worse when Brazilian forward Grafite was ordered off before Sebastian Freis added a second to put the game beyond Felix Magath’s men.

“The game was there for the taking,” said Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath.

“In the first half we played well, but missed our chances.

“The goal we conceded put us on the back foot and from there we just couldn’t win the game.”

A win would have put Wolfsburg third in the table behind leaders Hamburg and second-placed Bayer Leverkusen, but defeat leaves them eighth.

Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt avoided going bottom of the table after a late equaliser earned a 1-1 home draw with Arminia Bielefeld.

The main talking point of the weekend, however, was Bayern Munich’s 1-0 defeat at Hannover which has left them sitting ninth in the table.

Coming off the back of last weeks 5-2 hammering by Werder Bremen, Jurgen Klinsmann’s men turned in another disappointing display as they lost to Szabolcs Huszti’s 23rd minute free-kick.

“I’ve noticed how many teams are ahead of us, and it annoys me,” said Bayern manager Uli Hoeness ahead of his side’s Champions League clash with Lyon on Tuesday.

“We should put a lot of effort into making sure it doesn’t stay that way for very long. We were much too careless.

“We were totally in control for the first 20 minutes, but we let them seize the initiative with a stupid goal from a free-kick. Thankfully we have our next game on Tuesday against Lyon.

“We can use it to test ourselves at the European level and hopefully find our rhythm, so we play better in the league than we have done recently.”

Hamburg are the Bundesliga leaders as a first-half header from Croatian striker Mladen Petric earned them a 1-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach to send Martin Jol’s men top of the table.

There was some crazy football for ten-man Werder Bremen as midfielder Mesut Oezil hit the winner for the home side in a 5-4 victory over Hoffenheim which put his side third in the table ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash at Inter Milan.

Bayer Leverkusen are second in the table thanks to their 3-2 win at struggling VfL Bochum.

The home-side were 3-0 down but with 10 minutes left they scored twice in as many minutes to ensure a dramatic finish.

Borussia Dortmund are up to fifth thanks to an impressive 3-0 win at home to VfB Stuttgart to seal their first win in five games.

Energie Cottbus picked up their first win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Hertha Berlin to lift themselves off the bottom of the table.

On Friday, Schalke 04 yielded the top spot with a shock 1-0 win at Cologne and drop to fourth in the league.

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