Lewandowski fires Bayern closer to title; Gladbach sink Dortmund
A double from Robert Lewandowski fired injury-hit Bayern Munich to three points defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 and taking one step closer to the league championship. Lewandowski struck either side of the break as Bayern sat comfortably in second gear with their Polish striker continuing his superb run of form for the champions.
Josep Guardiola's side was coming out of a grueling test at Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday that lasted 120 minutes and penalties, as well as, nursing a lengthy injury list. Unavailable were Arjen Robben, David Alaba, Franck Ribery, Medhi Benatia, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez. Meanwhile, Manuel Neuer sat in reserve and Guardiola had just three outfield players on the bench.
In-form striker Lewandowski slammed home the opener on 15 minutes, flicking the ball over the defender and volleying home ruthlessly with his right-foot. The Polish striker is looking at the top of his game following the winner in Dortmund last weekend. He was denied by Kevin Trapp on 19 minutes and then six minutes later in a similar situation in the inside-right channel.
Lewandowski's link-up play has been equally superb -- the striker combining with former Borussia Dortmund teammate Mario Goetze whose low finish was blocked by Trapp after 30 minutes. Despite taking the foot of the accelerator after the break, Bayern still carried a threat at the other end and after Goetze hit the foot of the post on 63 minutes, Lewandowski made it 16 for the season, heading in from a few inches out.
Bayern wrapped up the win with Thomas Muller converting from a tight angle on 81 minutes.
Borussia Monchengladbach ran out 3-1 winners as Borussia Dortmund's defensive problems were put under the microscope yet again.
The Foals were dumped out of the German Cup on Wednesday at Arminia Bielefeld and with the UEFA Champions League in sight, Lucien Favre's men showed resilience to fight back against Dortmund. Favre was without the suspended Christoph Kramer, whilst Marco Reus missed out the chance to play at his old stomping ground.
Dortmund has already conceded first minute goals this season -- they have lost the most goals in the first five minutes than any other side -- and Monchengladbach was the latest benefactor. After 28 seconds, Herrmann waltzed through the defense, cutting back for Kruse whose strike teed up Wendt who delivered the finish.
Protecting their lead, Favre's men retreated into their shell. But the Foals still possessed a devastatingly potent counter-attack with Herrmann the key trigger whenever he won the ball in his own half. That was exactly how Gladbach went 2-0 up: Herrmann won the ball, turned away from Manchester United target Mats Hummels before slaloming up the park and squaring for Raffael who converted his sixth goal in his last five games.
In the second half, Roman Weidenfeller made a good stop to prevent Herrmann from adding his 11th of the season on 49 minutes. But a minute later, Shinji Kagawa failed to level from a few yards out, misjudging the cross from the left-hand side.
Elsewhere, Son Heung-Min returned to Bayer Leverkusen's starting lineup to fire Roger Schmidt's men to a 3-2 win at Mainz.
Stefan Kiessling and Hakan Calhanoglu added to the scoreline in the second half to extend Leverkusen's lead in the last Champions League position to 10 points. Ja-Cheol Koo hit a brace, both goals coming from the spot in the last quarter of an hour and the second in the final minutes of injury-time.
Fifth-placed Schalke drew 0-0 at home to Freiburg who missed a penalty on 57 minutes with Julian Schuster clearing the crossbar from 12 yards.
The Royal Blues welcomed back Julian Draxler from a long injury lay-off, but Roberto Di Matteo's men will almost certainly be without Champions League football next season.
Meanwhile, SC Paderborn ended a run of 599 minutes without a goal with a 2-1 win over FC Augsburg at home to move out of the automatic relegation positions.
Andre Breitenreiter's side looked resigned to an immediate return to the second division, but they showed fighting spirit on Saturday to beat Europa League-chasing Augsburg. After dominating the first 45 minutes, Elias Kachunga scored his sixth of the season three minutes after the restart to end the team's drought in front of goal.
But the lead lasted four minutes as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, on-loan from Bayern, equalized with a fine individual effort. On the hour mark, Paderborn went back ahead with Idir Ouali crossing terrifically for Srdjan Lakic to head home from close range.
Hamburg -- a side that hasn't been relegated from the top-flight -- went down 2-0 at home to Wolfsburg, a result that leaves them second-bottom.
Second-placed Wolfsburg scored either side of the break through Joshua Guilavogui and Daniel Caligiuri as they guaranteed a place in the top-four this season.
Johan Djourou was sent off late on as Hamburg went an eighth match without a win under the tutelage of interim coach Peter Knabel, the current sporting director.
