Dortmund falter
Mainz closed the gap at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday to 10 points with a tense 4-2 win at wintry St Pauli as leaders Borussia Dortmund were beaten 1-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Both Mainz striker Andre Shuerrle and St Pauli midfielder Matthias Lehmann scored two goals, but a deft first-half chip by Mainz's Hungary striker Adam Szalai kept the guests ahead on a bitterly cold night in Hamburg.
Mainz midfielder Marco Caligiuri settled the matter in the 83rd minute when he took a clever pass from substitute striker Sami Allagui and drilled his shot past the goalkeeper as Mainz went second.
Dortmund's lead at the top has been cut to ten points and Leverkusen can bridge the gap further if they can reclaim second by beating Freiburg on Sunday.
Earlier leaders Dortmund were stunned when the league's top-scorer Theofanis Gekas netted his 14th league goal of the season on 86 minutes with some superb finishing.
It was only the second defeat of the season for the league's top side.
"They deserved to win," admitted Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp with the Bundesliga set to take its customary winter break on Sunday.
Dortmund would have claimed the German league record for the best start to the season if they had drawn or won.
Fourth-placed Hanover were stunned 3-1 at mid-table Nuremberg, while Champions League last 16-qualifiers Schalke picked up their third-straight league win with a 3-0 win over Cologne as Spain striker Raul hit a hattrick.
It was his second in the German league since joining Schalke from Real Madrid at the start of the season.
Hoffenheim allowed a 2-0 lead to slip to a 2-2 draw at Wolfsburg as ex-England manager Steve McClaren's side fought back.
The result leaves Wolfsburg 13th in the league and just four points from the relegation zone, while Hoffenheim are eighth.
Werder Bremen slipped further towards the relegation zone when they were beaten 2-1 by Kaiserslautern to suffer their second straight defeat.
Both sides had players sent off in a bad-tempered match.
It was Bremen's eighth reversal of the season in 17 games and they are 14th in the league, four points above third from bottom Cologne.
RESULTS
Werder Bremen 1 (Hunt 34-pen) Kaiserslautern 2 (Lakic 1, 52)
VfL Wolfsburg 2 (Diego 75, Dzeko 90+1) Hoffenheim 2 (Luiz Gustavo 35, Sigurdsson 40)
Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (Gekas 87) Borussia Dortmund 0
Nuremberg 3 (Cherundolo 28, Wolf 31, Schieber 82) Hanover 1 (Pinto 76-pen)
Schalke 04 3 (Raul 30, 50, 87) FC Cologne 0
St Pauli 2 (Lehmann 33-pen, 63) Mainz 05 4 (Schuerrle 11, 28, Szalai 41, Caligiuri 83)
Comments