"Village club" Hoffenheim remained at the top of German Bundesliga standings after they claimed a 4-1 sweeping victory against Karlsruher on Saturday, while Bayern Munich reaped their fourth successive victory against Bielfeld.
In a derby with Karlsruher, Hoffenheim, nicknamed "village club" by German media, were unchallengeable and ended up with 4-1.It was their fifth straight win and, for Karlsruhe, the fifth straight defeat.
Hoffenheim took ten minutes to get going, at which point Demba Ba passed up their first real scoring opportunity. Five minutes later, a great move involving Tobias Weis and Chinedu Obasi left Vedad Ibisevic with the simple task of tapping in for his twelfth league goal of the season.
Karlsruhe were back on level terms five minutes after that, however, Sebastian Freis skillfully redirecting a misplaced Godfried Aduobe shot into the Hoffenheim net.
Hoffenheim responded by pouring on the pressure, but were unable to convert further first-half opportunities into goals.
Hoffenheim carried on in the second half where they had left off in the first, and Obasi finally found a way through in the 67th minute.
That opened a mini-floodgate, with Ibisevic taking his tally for the season up to 13 in the 75th minute before Obasi bagged another to round things off for Hoffenheim in the 78th minute.
With the three points, Hoffenheim claimed 25 points from 11 matches, thus taking the top place of the Bundesliga table.
During another game on the day, German top football league champions Bayern Munich overcame Arminia Bielfeld 3-1 at home, reaping their fourth victory in a row.
The win signaled the football powerhouse returned to form. The three points reap them up to third in the table of Bundesliga.
Arminia, now without a win in six, remain uncomfortably close to the drop zone.
The 69,000 full house at the Allianz Arena saw the home side take a deserved 25th-minute lead through on-fire Miroslav Klose, but Artur Wichniarek leveled from the spot with 30 minutes played, his eighth goal of the season.
The home side eventually made the decisive breakthrough in the 76th minute through Franck Ribery, with substitute Lukas Podolski scoring a third eight minutes later from the spot.
Two minutes prior to that, Arminia's Robert Tesche had been sent off for a bad foul.
"We're happy with the three points, and that we've continued our winning run," said Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann.
"We took the lead, but conceded a silly penalty. Then we battered away in the second half and made it 2-1. We won the corner count 20-0, which shows you how much pressure we applied," he added.
Also on Saturday, Hamburg slipped out of the top three when they suffered a 3-0 defeat away to Hanover 96 but Werder Bremen returned to form with a 5-1 win at home to Hertha Berlin.
Stuttgart lost to Koeln 1-3 while Cottbus still remained at the bottom of the standings after they were beaten by Schalke 04 0-2 at home.
On Sunday, Dortmund will encounter Bochum while Moenchengladbach are expected to face the challenge of Frankfurt.
Source: Xinhua
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