Bundesliga Round-Up: Stuttgart Beaten, Leverkusen Held By Hamburg

Round 19 of the Bundesliga saw honours even at the Bay-Arena between Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg. Stuttgart suffered a rare home defeat at the hands of Hertha Berlin, while there was also a win for Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg.

Bochum and Cottbus shred six goals in a 3-3 draw, and Hannover and Karlsruhe also drew.

Bayer Leverkusen 1 Hamburg 1

VfB Stuttgart 1 Hertha Berlin 3

VfL Bochum 3 Energie Cottbus 3

VfL Wolfsburg 2 MSV Duisburg 1

Nürnberg 1 Hansa Rostock 1

Hannover 2 Karlsruhe 2



Bayer Leverkusen 1 Hamburg 1

Honours were even at the Bay-Arena in an entertaining game, which sees Leverkusen remain in third place ahead of Hamburg on goal difference.

With Frank Rost saving everything that Bayer were throwing at him, Rafael van der Vaart did his bit upfront by converting the opening goal after 27 minutes. Trochowski crossed from the right and when Callsen-Bracker and Friedrich failed to deal with it, van der Vaart stole in to poke the ball past Rene Adler.

With an hour on the clock, Leverkusen finally managed the breakthrough with a goal from Manuel Friedrich. A Freier corner came in to the HSV area and it was Friedrich who powered his header past a helpless Frank Rost for a not undeserved equaliser.

In the end, a point apiece was a fair result on the balance of play.

VfB Stuttgart 1 Hertha Berlin 3

Stuttgart crashed to a rare home defeat as they went down 3-1 at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadion to a revitalised Hertha Berlin. Strikers Pantelic and Raffael did the damage for the away side.

The visitors started well forcing rookie keeper Ulreich into a spectacular save before taking the lead after just seven minutes. Marko Pantelic fired clinically home after being played through by new signing Gojko Kacar.

Armin Veh’s side got themselves level before half-time with a headed goal from Mario Gomez five minutes before the interval. Following a poorly delivered free kick, Cacau crossed into the six-yard box, where Gomez was on hand to head in.

The Swabians were however unable to stay level with a second goal from Serbian striker Marko Pantelic right on the stroke of half time. Confusion between keeper Ulreich and Meira let in Pantelic to restore Hertha’s lead.

Four minutes after the restart and Berlin remarkably went 3-1 ahead with new signing Raffael the scorer. Mineiro played a great ball through to his fellow Brazilian, and Raffael scored his first Bundesliga goal past Ulreich to put Hertha in the driving seat.

VfL Bochum 3 Energie Cottbus 3

Bochum and Cottbus shared six goals in an exciting game at the Rewirpower Stadium.

Good early pressure from the home side paid off after just seven minutes with the opening goal of the game. A corner from Azaough flew into the Cottbus area where Yahia rose the highest. Defender Ipsa tried to block the header but deflected it into his own net for an unfortunate own goal.

In a hard fought game Bochum then doubled their lead three minutes before half time when Stanislav Sestak robbed Mitreski of the ball on the edge of the box, before side stepping Ipsa and firing the ball in.

Cottbus didn’t allow their heads to drop and got a goal of their own right on the whistle for half time. A mis-placed pass in midfield was picked up by Angelov, who fed Papadopoulos. The Greek signing from Leverkusen steered the ball past Lastuvka from a one-on-one situation.

On 68 minutes Benjamin Auer scored his second in two games to restore Bochum’s two-goal lead. A well worked free kick saw Azaough flick the ball on at the near post for Auer to stab home from on the goal line.

A minute later however Cottbus grabbed their second goal following a terrible mistake from the Bochum keeper when he collided with Maltritz allowing Skela an easy chance to make it 3-2.

Energie then completed their fightback on 79 with Jelic grabbing the equaliser following a top assist from Angelov.

VfL Wolfsburg 2 MSV Duisburg 1

Wolfsburg overcame Duisburg 2-1 to inflict further misery on Rudi Bommer ’s bottom of the table side.

Duisburg took the lead against Felix Magath’s side with 26 minutes played. A clearance from Wolfsburg fell to substitute Veigneau, who laid the ball off to Niculescu. The Rumanian fired past Benaglio with pace and power from 16 meters to hand his side the lead.

That lead only lasted ten minutes as Marcel Schäfer bagged the equaliser on 36 minutes. A long distance shot from the defender beat Beukert for pace and the Wolves found themselves back on level terms.

With the second half only nine minutes old Wolfsburg took the lead for the first time in the game. Marcelinho passed to Dzeko, who laid the ball on for Grafite. The Brazilian beat Schlicke for pace before firing past Beuckert to make it 2-1.

Nürnberg 1 Hansa Rostock 1

It ended all-square between Nürnberg and Rostock in a result that will suit neither side in their quest for Bundesliga survival.

New winter signing Jan Koller grabbed his first goal for the club in their attempt to avoid relegation with a header on 19 minutes. Reinhardt won the ball in midfield before feeding Kristiansen on the right. The Dane crossed to the centre, where Koller beat Sebastian to head home.

Ten minutes later and the away side drew level. A long ball found Rahn in space with only Blazek to beat, and that he did with a fine lob over the keeper from 14 meters out.

Hannover 2 Karlsruhe 2

An entertaining game at the AWD Arena finished 2-2 with four goals shared between the two high flying sides.

The home side took the lead just before half time through Hanno Balitsch. Bruggink sent his free kick, Eggimann lost out to Hanke in the aerial duel, with midfielder Bruggink on hand to stab the ball home from close range.

KSC deservedly got themselves back on level terms on 61 minutes when Joshua Kennedy scored his second goal in two games to equalise. The Australian beat Vinicius to an Andy Görlitz cross to score past Robert Enke.

Three minutes later and they were in the lead thanks to Tamas Hajnal. Eichner beat both Huszti and Vinicius before cutting the ball back from the bye-line to Hajnal, who slotted home with nobody near him.

Hannover weren’t going to be beaten though with Rosenthal grabbing a late equaliser. Christian Schulz played the ball into the middle to Rosenthal who fired home with aplomb.