Lucas Barrios

In the freezing cold, Dortmund set the target for the rest with a Friday night win and then sat back and watched the rest of the top four stumble behind them.

NURNBURG 0 BORUSSIA DORTMUND 2

In Friday night temperatures of -11˚C, joint leaders Dortmund looked frozen to the spot for the first 20 minutes as the home side dominated. Nürnburg had penalty appeals turned down and forced Shinji Kagawa into a goal-line clearance.

However, nobody can outplay the champions for long and Dortmund took control of the game as the first half wore on and Sebastian Kehl will be very disappointed that he failed to score the opener before the break. He corrected that just minutes after the restart by giving Dortmund the lead and the visitors dominated from there on out as Kagawa and Robert Lewandowski both had goals disallowed.

It took Lucas Barrios to finally chalk up his first goal of the season to close the game out for good.

HAMBURG 1 BAYERN MUNICH 1

There are few games bigger than the North-South rivalry that is Hamburg v Bayern Munich. With the improved form of the northern city side, this looked to be a humdinger in Hamburg too.

This was heightened early on when Jerome Boateng had a goal ruled out for Bayern and the home fans then raised the roof when Jacopo Sala, who was part of the quad of Chelsea reserves that swept into town at the start of the season, scuffed a volley past Manuel Neuer to cap only his third appearance for Hamburg with a goal.

The remaining 65 minutes became a game of attack v defence as Bayern were desperate to reclaim top spot and when a defence holds out on Bayern, the cavalry is called for. The cavalry came in the shape of former Hamburg player, Ivica Olic, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out what happened next; a goalmouth scramble and Olic turned the ball home for only his second goal of the season – Bayern had their blushes sparred.

SCHALKE 1 MAINZ 1

When Dortmund let Mohamed Zidan go back to Mainz, the club where the Egyptian international enjoyed his best form as a Bundesliga player, they probably would not have guessed it would take just 15 minutes for Zidan to help his old club out massively. That is what happened though as he ghosted in at the far post to give Mainz a deserved early lead against Dortmund’s title rivals.

There must be something about playing for Mainz that flicks a switch in the head of Zidan, who was by far the most creative and dangerous player on either side. However, it was not to be a shock win for the visitors as Schalke had a signing of their own who made an impact, the lighting fast Chinedu Obasi flying past the Mainz defence before drilling the ball home from a nigh-on impossible angle to salvage a point.

WOLFSBURG 0 BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH 0

It’s not often a game finishes goalless when the ball has been in the back of the net twice, but that is exactly what happened at Wolfsburg. First of all, Mike Hanke had the ball in the net for the visitors in what was an incredibly tight call for offside that even proved inconclusive on a freeze-frame replay.

After the break, it was 1-1 on the offside goals count as Giovanni Sio slotted home, but Sebastian Polter was clearly offside. Yet, when the offside trap was beaten, as Marco Reus succeeded in doing late on, he only managed to miss the target with a horrific effort, gifting his side the chance to go second in the process.

BAYER LEVERKUSEN 2 STUTTGART 2

The reason Leverkusen are not title challengers this season is their propensity to throw away leads, which they managed to showcase in this one. A superb first-half free-kick from Julian Schieber cancelling out the lead given to Bayer by Stefan Kieβling.

Bayer then proceeded to repeat the dose after half-time; Simon Rolfes converted from the spot after Lars Bender was bundled over. After surviving with ten men for most of the second period, due to Michael Kadlec being sent off, they conceded to Martin Harnik in the very last minute. There was still time for Stuttgart to even up the numbers though as Cristian Molinaro kicked Andre Schürrle in the head to get himself dismissed.

FREIBURG 2 WERDER BREMEN 2

With three of the top four and Leverkusen drawing, an away game against the bottom side was a great opportunity for Werder to get back into the race for a Champions League spot. Michael Lumb scared the visitors early on with a fizzing 30-yarder against the bar-post angle but Werder have one huge advantage in the goals of Claudio Pizarro and he gave them the lead on the half-hour.

To misquote Isaac Newton though; for every advantage there is an equal disadvantage and that disadvantage comes in their inability to defend set-pieces. The result was a Cedric Makiadi header, 1-1; the seventh set-piece goal they have conceded this season. Considering the fact Pizarro then slotted his 16th goal of the season, calling it ‘an equal disadvantage’ might be a bit unfair on Werder. However, they did manage to switch-off, thinking the game was won and were then sucker punched by a Jonathan Schmid equaliser.

HOFFENHEIM 2 AUGSBURG 2

Hoffenheim finally have a recognised striker again, bringing in Srdan Lakic who had become the forgotten man at Wolfsburg. However, it was Augsburg striker, Sascha Mӧlders, who himself seemed to have forgotten how to score since his early season hot streak who made the first half impact. A right-footed finish put Augsburg into the lead, not for long though as Paniel Mlapa equalised with a lovely chip.

When Roberto Firmino was then felled in the box and Sejad Salihovic converted the spot kick to start the second half it looked like the struggling visitors had run their race for the afternoon. However, Sebastian Langkamp bundled in a corner for an equaliser that lead to Lakic being called for by Holger Stanislawski to try and retake the lead. It was Mӧlders who had the best chance to win the game though, heading wide from a good position.

HERTHA BERLIN 0 HANNOVER 1

Michael Skibbe has lost his first two games in charge of Hertha and desperately needed some points on the board in order to stop their sudden slide into the relegation battle. The visit of Hannover with only seven away points should have been perfect and was almost capitalised when Pierre-Michel Lasogga had a shot cleared off the line.

Things are not going right for Skibbe though, and a third consecutive loss was delivered when new Hannover signing, Mame Biram Diouf laid the ball off for the lethal Mohammed Abdellaoue to score his 11th goal of the season with a 30-yard pile driver that was truly unstoppable.

KAISERSLAUTERN 0 KOLN 1

The side that have scored the fewest goals in the league played host to a side that relies on Lukas Podolski for their goals. The fact Podolski was out injured meant the biggest shock was that this game did not finish 0-0. Admittedly, that may well be due to the man advantage the visitors enjoyed for most of the game due to the two yellow cards received by Ariel Borysiuk. Milevoje Novakovic had a goal disallowed and then substitute winger Odise Roshi headed home from a corner to win the game.