Dortmund's season takes turn for the worse; Leverkusen climb to third
Borussia Dortmund, in the final 16 of the UEFA Champions League and considered one of Europe's top sides for the past several seasons, could spend the Bundesliga holiday break at the bottom of the league for the first time in their history.
Beaten 2-1 at Werder Bremen Saturday afternoon, Dortmund dropped to 17th in the table and is just a point ahead of last-place SC Freiburg, who host Hannover Sunday evening and could consign Juergen Klopp's club to the basement with a victory.
At the very least, Klopp's team will spend Christmas and New Year in the drop zone as Werder Bremen jumped above them, but remains in the bottom three on goal-difference.
Elsewhere, Augsburg came from behind to defeat Borussia Moenchengladbach, 2-1 while Schalke was held 0-0 by Hamburger SV. That means Gladbach, Schalke and Augsburg all sit on 27 points in a virtual fourth place tie. Bayer Leverkusen, which got a late equalizer for a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt, moved into third place while VfB Stuttgart jumped above the last three on goal-difference after a 0-0 draw against Paderborn.
Dortmund found itself behind inside three minutes, Davie Selke profiting from a Santiago Garcia through ball down the inside left channel. Selke turned with far too much space to work, stepped to his right and curled the ball inside the far post. Once again, BvB's slack defensive work, cost them badly, three defenders pulling up too slowly to catch Selke offside. Instead he raced behind them to accept Garcia's pass and got his shot away before Marcel Schmelzer could close him down.
Werder Bremen could have had more in the opening 45 minutes, too. Dortmund keeper Mitch Langerak twice had to thwart right-side raids from Melvyn Lorenzen, the first time by cutting down the angle in the 26th minute to force the shot wide, then by coming outside his area to beat the forward who again had the freedom of the right side.
Klopp sent on Shinji Kagawa at the interval for Sebastian Kehl in an attempt to inject some fluidity into the attack, but the player reclaimed from a lost two years at Manchester United had no luck. He found himself wide open to a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang cross in the 56th minute but placed his eight-yard header wide of the right post. Kagawa created another chance in the 78th minute when he spun on a ball 12 yards out in the center of the box, but shanked the attempt well high and wide to the right.
They traded first half goals at Augsburg, Max Kruse putting Gladbach ahead with a third minute penalty before Augsburg answered with a fine counter in the 21st. Alexander Esswein rampaged down the right flank before serving a fine cross into the box. Halil Altintop got enough of a touch on it to settle the ball for Markus Feulner to strike from 16 yards.
Raul Bobadilla won it for Augsburg in the 51st minute when he first-timed an Esswein cross from 15 yards. Esswein had broken free when a through ball bounced over the head of out-rushing defender Tony Jantschke, leaving Esswein open wide on the right. Alex Manninger denied Thorgan Hazard an 85th minute opportunity to preserve the three points for Augsburg.
At night, Wolfsburg tightened its grip on second place with goals from Bas Dost and Naldo carrying them to a 2-1 victory over Cologne. The Wolves remain 11 points off Bayern Munich's league-leading pace, but they are now six points clear of Bayer Leverkusen and in control of the fight for an automatic Champions League spot next year.
Naldo powered in a 78th minute header to decide the match after Sebastian Jung had created Dost's first-half opportunity. Dost's 12th-minute header came just four minutes after Cologne had taken an unexpected lead through Dominic Maroh.
