Sunday's play
October 3, 2010
Dortmund clocked up their sixth Bundesliga win in a row by defeating champions Bayern Munich 2-0 on Sunday.
It's the best start of the season in Dortmund's history, and the worst for Bayern who have now lost three of their seven games and are languishing in 12th place.
For the first 45 minutes, Bayern looked like they were in control with Mario Gomez enjoying his first start of the season and having four good attempts on goal. However Bayern failed to break their poor attack record so far this season and both teams went into the changing rooms at half time even and goalless.
Dortmund upped the game in the second half with Lucas Barrios scoring in the 52nd minute. It was his fourth goal this season. Barrios capitalized on a throw-in that Bayern failed to clear and scored with a deflected shot. Eight minutes later, Turkish international Nuri Sahin scored from a superb free kick, which left the Bayern defense helpless.
'Keep the faith'
"We didn't make the most of our chances, especially in the first half," said a fuming Bayern captain Mark van Bommel. "Our mistakes led to the goals."
"Dortmund didn't get better during the game, we just got worse," van Bommel added.
"It's difficult but we must keep the faith," said Bayern coach Louis van Gaal.
Dortmund bounced back from their midweek Europa League defeat to humble Bayern and keep their number two spot in the table.
"At the moment it's a good result, but it's only October," said coach Juergen Klopp. "We have won against the best team in Germany. We can be proud," he added.
Stuttgart sink further
At home to Frankfurt, Stuttgart failed to produce the form to pull them out of the bottom spot of the table, with a 2-1 defeat.
Although initially strong, it was Frankfurt who scored first, with a header from Theofanis Gekas in the 18th minute.
In the second half, Frankfurt took themselves clear with a second headed goal, this time from Brazilian defender Chris.
Drama came just six minutes from time, as Stuttgart captain Matthieu Delpierre was shown a red card for a late tackle on Patrick Ochs. Yet a 10-man Stuttgart gave their home fans some late hope with a close-range goal from Pavel Pogrebniak in the 85th minute.
In a frantic closing phase, Cacau thought he had equalized, but the goal was disallowed, while Frankfurt's Halil Alintop shot wide in front of an open goal.
The match is Stuttgart's sixth loss from seven games.
Equal chances
In Sunday's other game, Leverkusen and Bremen drew 2-2 at the Bay Arena.
Patrick Helmes gave Leverkusen the lead after 16 minutes. After the break, Bremen leveled the score through Hugo Almeida, then were ahead nine minutes later with a goal from Marko Marin.
The home side salvaged the point with twelve minutes to go, as Eren Derdiyok dribbled past three Bremen defenders to score just inside the area.
Taking a point each, Leverkusen take 4th in the league table, while Bremen are 13th.
Author: Catherine Bolsover (dpa/AFP/Reuters)
Editor: Nigel Tandy