Augsburg add to Dortmund's relegation woes, Bremen win

 

Borussia Dortmund's relegation worries deepened after their 11th defeat of the season, a 1-0 loss at home to ten-man Augsburg, kept the ailing German giants rooted to the bottom of the Bundesliga.

Raul Bobadilla's second-half goal lifted his team up to fourth in the table but left Dortmund -- who in the past

four seasons have won two successive titles in 2011 and 2012 and finished runners-up in the subsequent campaigns -- in serious danger of being relegated for the first time since 1972. Augsburg took a deserved lead when veteran Turkish international striker Halil Altintop managed to get his pass away despite the attentions of a posse of Dortmund defenders to leave Bobadilla free to fire home his third goal in as many games on 50 minutes. To add to Borussia's woes, Kevin Grosskreutz joined their lengthy walking wounded list by limping off with a thigh injury.

Augsburg were reduced to ten men on 64 minutes when defender Christoph Janker was shown a straight red for hauling down Dortmund's Gabon winger Pierre-Emerick Aubemayang. But Jurgen Klopp's 2013 UEFA Champions League finalists failed to make the numerical advantage count to suffer their fourth home defeat of the season. Italy striker Ciro Immobile squandered a golden chance in added time when he headed straight at Augsburg goalkeeper Alexander Manninger. Dortmund are two points adrift of second-from-bottom Stuttgart after they drew 0-0 with Cologne.

Bayer Leverkusen moved up to fifth thanks to a 1-0 win at Hertha Berlin, Stefan Kiessling scored the only goal of the game just after the half-time break at the Olympic Stadium. Hamburg moved up to 13th in the table with their first win in five matches with an emphatic 3-0 victory at home to Paderborn. Their captain and Dutch midfielder Raphael van der Vaart opened the scoring after just two minutes when he converted a penalty as left winger Marcell Jansen was fouled in the area. Former Germany squad member Jansen then made sure of the three points when he fired home on 72 minutes before attacking midfielder Zoltan Stieber added their third in the 91st minute. 

Bremen win third straight
Hamburg's north German neighbours Werder Bremen continued their eyecatching climb up the table to 11th with their third straight win as they claimed a 2-1 victory at Hoffenheim. Bremen took an early lead when ex-Chelsea striker Franco di Santo scored his third goal in his two matches since a knee injury after just eight minutes. Hoffenheim drew level through a header by defender Ermin Bicakcic, only for Philipp Bargfrede to make it 2-1 when he fired home Di Santo's final pass on 52 minutes.

Bayern Munich stayed eight points clear at the top of the table despite playing for 70 minutes with ten men in their 1-1 draw at home to Schalke on Tuesday. Arjen Robben headed Bayern into a second-half lead before Royal Blues captain Benedikt Howedes equalised from a corner five minutes later.

Pep Guardiola's defending champions were reduced to ten men when Jerome Boatenng was shown a straight red with only 17 minutes gone for fouling Sidney Sam in the area. Second-placed Wolfsburg missed the chance to close the gap behind Bayern when they needed a late Kevin de Bruyne goal to rescue a point in their 1-1 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt.