Honors Even in Top Clash
March 12, 2007
Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld praised his side's effort in a 1-1 draw with second-placed Werder Bremen on Sunday which keeps the German giants in the hunt for their 21st Bundesliga title.
Striker Lukas Podolski grabbed an early goal for Bayern, but substitute striker Markus Rosenberg headed home five minutes after his second half introduction to level for Bremen and end Bayern's three-game winning run.
Having knocked Real Madrid out of the Champions League in midweek, Bayern had second-placed Bremen under pressure from the start, but failed to convert their chances and remain six points behind leaders Schalke 04.
"We dominated Bremen in all areas during the first half and it was one of the best performance I have seen since coming back here," said Hitzfeld, who returned to Munich in February to replace sacked Felix Magath. "My only criticism would be that we must be more clinical in our finishing.
"Our primary goal now is to get into the Bundesliga's top three to make sure we qualify for next season's Champions League, if we do that anything can happen."
German international Bastion Schweinsteiger was a constant thorn in the Bremen defense and his pass to Mark Van Bommel set up Podolski's goal after seven minutes, but the trio then wasted chances in front of a crowd of 69,000.
But Rosenberg equalized for Bremen after 66 minutes when Hugo Almeida's looped a header beat Bayern goalkeeper Oliver Kahn and the Swedish international striker nodded home.
In the day's other game, Bayern Leverkusen drew 0-0 with Hamburg.
Schalke, Stuttgart glean a point each
The weekend's results mean things remain tight at the top with the chasing pack of Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart and Bayern hard on the heels of leaders Schalke 04, who are three points clear of Bremen.
At the other end, seven teams are all just one defeat off the relegation zone and only six points separate ninth-placed Alemania Aachen and bottom side Borussia Mönchengladbach.
On Saturday, Schalke striker Halil Altintop finally broke his 12-match goal drought as the Bundesliga leaders took their first points in three games with a 1-1 draw at Hanover.
Altintop was delighted to find the net again before defender Michael Tarnat put Hanover back on level terms just two minutes later.
Stuttgart's push for a Champions League place next season suffered a setback when the Bundesliga's leading goal scorer Mario Gomez was ruled out for six weeks because of a knee injury picked up in Saturday's 0-0 draw with Wolfsburg.
The injury will rule him out of Germany's Euro 2008 qualifier against the Czech Republic later this month having only made a goal-scoring debut last month in the 3-1 win over Switzerland.
Bottom side Mönchengladbach enjoyed a rare 3-1 win in front of a home crowd of 40,000 over mid-table Hertha Berlin as striker Nando Rafael scored twice with bullet-headers either side of half-time.
Aachen poached a 2-0 win at Cottbus with goals by forward Sascha Rösler and midfielder Sergio Pinto either side of half-time. But the guests found themselves down to 10 men when Sascha Dumm was shown a red card for abusing the referee just before half-time.
Mainz, seemingly doomed to relegation before the winter break, have now pulled themselves up to 10th with a 1-0 win at home to Arminia Bielefeld with a 51st minute penalty by Danish defender Leon Andreasen.
Bochum's Greek striker Theofanis Gekas bagged two goals in his side's win at home to Borussia Dortmund to leave their great Ruhr Valley rivals just one point off the bottom three and contemplating an end of season relegation battle.