Cologne takes a breather

After a turbulent week both on and off the pitch, Cologne managed to secure a 1-0 win over Stuttgart. Forward Lukas Podolski converted a late penalty after Stuttgart's Georg Niedermeier brought down Milivoje Novakovic.

Cologne are now in the penultimate spot on the league table on 11 points, with arch rival Moenchengladbach languishing at the bottom.

Cologne's manager Michael Meier has been in the firing line for weeks now - at the club's annual meeting, members and angry fans demanded his resignation as well as that of Wolfgang Overath, Cologne's president and 1974 World Cup winner.

Northern derby

Hamburg's St. Pauli and fellow northerners Wolfsburg drew 1-1 in Sunday's only other Bundesliga match. Despite dominating most of the match, St. Pauli failed to take advantage of a lackluster rival until half an hour into the game, when Markus Thorandt converted a corner by Max Kruse.

Wolfsburg's Edin Dzeko scored the equalizer in the 54th minute, leaving St. Pauli to rue many a squandered chance and make do with a disappointing draw. St. Pauli are now number 14 on the league table, while the Wolves moved up one spot to number 11.

On Saturday, Dortmund defended a seven point league lead with a 2-1 victory at Freiburg.

Also on Saturday, defending champions Bayern Munich, now 14 points adrift of the league leaders, were held to a 1-1 draw at Leverkusen and Felix Magath's Schalke thrashed Bremen 4-0 with former Spanish striker Raul scoring a well-deserved hat-trick.

Author: Nicole Goebel (SID, dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Ben Knight