Bayer Leverkusen ended Bayern Munich's stay at the top of the
Bundesliga after less than 24 hours by beating Mainz 4-2 on
Saturday.
Bayern beat Hoffenheim Friday night to kick off the second
half of the season and claim first place for the first time in more
than a year, but Leverkusen rallied against the promoted team to
remain unbeaten in 18 games.
Leverkusen fell behind when Tim Hoogland scored for Mainz
after eight minutes, but coach Jupp Heynckes' team then scored
three goals and cruised home.
"We reacted well after falling behind, we had problems at the
start," Heynckes said. "We played well after that and we should
have scored more goals in the second half."
In other matches, Hamburger SV beat Freiburg 2-0, Eintracht
Frankfurt edged Werder Bremen 1-0, Bochum beat Borussia
Moenchengladbach 2-1 on the road and Hertha Berlin won 3-0 in
Hannover for only its second win of the season.
Leverkusen now has 38 points, two more than Bayern. Hamburg
has 34 and is ahead of Schalke on goal difference. Schalke plays
Sunday against Nuremberg.
In the late match, Stuttgart beat defending champion
Wolfsburg 3-1 to escape from the relegation zone.
Roberto Hilbert notched his first goal of the season in the
28th with a volley to put Stuttgart ahead after being left unmarked
at the far post.
Pavel Pogrebnyak doubled the lead in the 58th. Zdravko
Kuzmanovic crossed a free kick to the far post, Serdar Tasci headed
down to Pogrebnyak, who easily netted from close range.
Edin Dzeko pulled one back for Stuttgart in the 65th after
being put through with a good pass from Grafite.
But substitute Timo Gebhart sealed Stuttgart's victory after
a counterattack in the 87th.
After falling behind, Leverkusen stepped up the pace and
recovered on goals from Michal Kadlec, Tranqillo Barnetta and Toni
Kroos inside the first 30 minutes. Niko Bungert revived some hopes
for Freiburg by scoring in the 67th but Eren Derdiyok completed the
victory in the 88th.
Mainz is winless in six games.
On a pitch that quickly deteriorated, Hamburg went ahead
through Marcell Jansen's left-footed volley in the seventh minute
and Mladen Petric added the second in the 56th.
Although it dominated the match, Hamburg could not score more
goals against a team it has not lost to in 15 years.
Eintracht beat Werder for the second time this season on a
goal by Marco Russ in the 57th minute, after Werder's defense
failed to clear a cross from Chris.
Werder slumped to its third straight defeat.
Hertha Berlin, which took only six points in the first half
of the season, surprised Hannover with first-half goals from Lukasz
Piszczek and Raffael.
Fanis Gekas, who came to Berlin from Leverkusen during the
break, completed the rout in the 80th.
Goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz saved Hannover from an even
bigger defeat by stopping Cicero's late penalty. Hannover is
winless in seven games. While Hertha remained at the bottom,
Hannover is only one point above the relegation zone.
Bochum stunned Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 to lift itself
from the bottom ranks on goals from Stanislav Sestak and Zlatko
Dedic in the first half.
Borussia, which has not beaten Bochum in 12 years, had a late
goal from Fabian Baecker.
