Lewandowski leads Bayern to comfy win; Dortmund's struggles continue
The alarm bells will be sounding across the Bundesliga on Saturday night. Robert Lewandowski is re-discovering his goal-scoring touch, Arjen Robben seems to have all the space in the world and Bayern Munich is rounding into top form.
Both scored twice as Bayern overpowered Hannover 96, 4-0 to extend its lead atop the Bundesliga. More impressive than the result was the manner in which Josep Guardiola's team rolled over a side which had started the season well, finding its fluid passing game in high gear even with the likes of Mario Goetze and Thomas Mueller getting a day off.
Elsewhere, Hamburger SV was the shock winner, a Pierre-Michel Lasogga goal enough to get them off the bottom of the table and extend the miseries for misfiring Borussia Dortmund; Bayer Leverkusen and Paderborn shared four goals in a 2-2 draw that featured a frantic finish; Hoffenheim climbed to second spot with a 2-1 success against Schalke; and Werder Bremen hit the bottom of the table after a 1-1 home draw against SC Freiburg.
Lewandowski needed only six minutes to get Bayern on top in front of the home fans as the defending champions put on any early clinic, then settled into a dominant role. Rafinha, near the halfway line, spotted the Polish striker between defenders in position to beat the offside trap and lofted a perfect long ball down the middle. Lewandowski chested it down, took one stride and shot home.
Seven minutes later it was captain Philipp Lahm picking out Robben, who then produced one of his patented right-to-left runs through the area before cutting the shot back across goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler to the low right corner. It was action replay time in the 38th minute only this time Xherdan Shaqiri was on the left touchline when he saw Lewandowski racing through the trap and sent him another pass from the halfway line. This time Lewandowski had time and space for a stride or two before finishing past the stranded Zieler.
Robben got his second in the 79th minute. After exchanging passes with substitute Claudio Pizarro, he used a burst of speed to leave Hannover captain Christian Schulz chasing shadows. Once free, Robben picked the right corner again, this time beating Zieler with the power of the shot.
HSV went ahead in Dortmund in the 35th minute when Nikolai Mueller won the ball from a pair of BvB defenders and raced down the inside left channel from centerfield. Lasogga was running with him, out right so when Mueller was finally challenged he slipped the pass to the open Lasogga for the goal.
Dortmund, which had seemed to recover some form during a UEFA Champions League win at Anderlecht in midweek, never overcame the deficit and now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of being not only 10 points off the top of the table but just three points off the bottom.
Paderborn broke on top at Leverkusen when Bernd Leno's gaffe allowed Souleyman Koc an open net in the 20th minute. Leno had come off his line to chase a long ball from Elias Kachunga, but when he got there his left-foot swing missed the ball completely. That left Koc the simplest of finishes.
Bayer got even just before halftime thanks to another goalkeeping error, this one from Paderborn's Lukas Kruse's failure to hold an 18-yard Karim Bellarabi drive. The rebound spilled perfectly for Lars Bender to tap in the equalizer in the 41st minute. When Marvin Bakalorz saw red for a tackle from behind in the 73rd minute, Leverkusen had the advantage of playing the closing stages against 10 men, but it was Paderborn that grabbed the lead in the 87th minute. Lukas Rupp took a simple halfway line free kick, playing a routine ball wide to his left but it turned into a goal when Moritz Stoppelkamp beat defender Omer Toprak to possession and raced 40 meters before rounding Leno to score.
Later in the match, Karim Bellarabi then salvaged a draw for the home side when he converted a Robbie Kruse pass into a stoppage time equalizer.
Hoffenheim was two up at the interval against Schalke, Roberto Firmino setting up both of the home sides's goals. His cross put Tarik Elyounoussi home in the 14th minute, then he profitted from a giveaway to set up Adam Szalai, whose drive on the run from the right boomed into the top net. KlaasJan Huntelaar replied for Schalke seven minutes from time but the defeat left Schalke just eight points from seven matches and 11th place in the table.
Werder Bremen and SC Freiburg traded goals in the first half, Vladimir Darida's eighth minute penalty canceled out by Bremen's Franco DiSanto 23 minutes later.
Eintracht Frankfurt prevailed over Cologne in a 3-2 thriller in the night match, a result which lifted them to fifth in the table.
The teams traded first half goals, Marcel Risse sent in by Kevin Vogt to put the visitors on top in the 16th minute before Haris Seferovic's chipped cross created the eight yard header chance from which Alexander Meier equalized two minutes before the interval. Eintracht probably should have been ahead at the break but Timo Horn robbed Meier in the 18th minute while Jonas Hector headed a Takashi Inui drive off the line in the 35th.
It was Meier again, in the 54th minute, again with a header to a cross from Seferovic to put Eintracht on top. This time, Meier dipped a bit eight yards away as the cross from the Swiss international curled in from the right. But Hector replied when he got the benefit of the doubt on a possible 65th minute offside call, then went in alone on the left from Vogt's chip, finishing well on the run to make it 2-2.
The decider came in a most unfortunate way for the newly-promoted visitors. A Bastian Oczipka corner was met at the near post by defender Kevin Wimmer, whose headed-clearance attempt flew straight at his own keeper Horn.
At first Horn appeared to cover it; then the ball got between his legs and over the line for a goalkeeper own goal.
On Sunday VfL Wolfsburg hosts AFC Augsburg and Borussia Moenchengladbach is home to FSV Mainz to complete league play before the international break.
