Bayern extend lead, Wolfsburg drop points in German Bundesliga

Berlin, March 8: While Bayern Munich came from behind to beat Hannover 3-1, Augsburg inflicted Wolfsburg their first loss in 2015 in the 24th round of the German Bundesliga.

Front-runners Bayern Munich extended their lead atop the standings as they turned the tide against Hannover to earn their fifth straight victory thanks to Thomas Mueller’s brace, Xinhua reported on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hannover wait for their first victory since eight games.

A resilient Hannover gave the hosts a hard fight, as the German record champions were uble to produce goal-scoring opportunities. The visitors shocked Bayern with the opener through Hiroshi Kiyotake, who made use of Jimmy Briand’s build up play to slot home into the bottom left corner at the 25th minute.

However, it was a short-lived joy for Hannover as Bayern responded only three minutes later. Xabi Alonso utilised a dead ball to curl the ball over the wall into the top left corner to restore parity.

Despite the equaliser Bayern lacked in penetration but an awarded foul play pelty allowed the hosts to grab the lead for the first time when Thomas Mueller made it 2-1 on the score board from the spot at the 61st minute.

The Bavarians were not done with the scoring as Mueller sealed his brace 11 minutes later to take the game beyond Hannover’s reach.

With the 19th victory of the season Bayern Munich extend their lead to 11 points atop the standings whereas Hannover suffered their 11th loss to slip to 11th place.

Augsburg ended their winless run of four games by upsetting runner up Wolfsburg 1-0 on home soil. The “Wolves” suffered their first loss in 2015 to lose ground on front-runners Bayern Munich.

Hard-running Augsburg kept Wolfsburg’s dangerous offence at bay for 90 minutes. The former stched all three points by courtesy of Dominik Kohr, who tapped in the rebound of Tobias Werner’s foul play pelty in the 63rd minute.

Wolfsburg pressed for the equaliser but neither Daniel Caligiuri nor in-form striker Bas Dost were able to level the scores in the closing period.

The “Wolves” recorded the fourth loss of the season to remain on the second place with 50 points while Augsburg climbed to 5th place with 38 points.

Schalke returned to winning ways as they downed Hoffenheim 3-1 thanks to two goals by youngster Max Meyer. IANS