SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2014 SPORTS Bayern increase Bundesliga lead BERLIN: Reigning champions Bayern at home over hated rivals Dortmund. Munich extended their lead atop the Dortmund’s recent defensive struggles Bundesliga yesterday after winning at FC continued as goals from Joel Matip and Eric Cologne while Schalke 04 won the Ruhr Maxim Choupo-Moting left them trailing 2- derby against bitter rivals Borussia 0 by the midway point in the first half. Dortmund. Jurgen Klopp’s side did reduce the Bayern kept a clean sheet for their deficit shortly afterwards courtesy of a fourth straight Bundesliga match in a 2-0 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang strike but they victory to move to 14 points, two clear of could not find an equaliser and have col- Borussia Moenchengladbach. lected only seven points from six games Pep Guardiola’s side opened the scoring this season, one fewer than Schalke. on 19 minutes as Mario Goetze struck his “It was an important victory, especially third goal in the last two matches. The visi- for our fans. It’s fantastic,” said Schalke tors continued to press Cologne and finally coach Jens Keller. “We play in three days (in doubled the lead midway through the sec- the Champions League against Maribor) so ond half as Daniel Halfar put through his we can’t really celebrate that much. But we own net. will enjoy it for a couple of hours,” said “They didn’t do anything. They just Matip. played in the back and tried to counter and Dortmund captain Mats Hummels, who never really came out. But I congratulate was in the starting line-up for the first time the team, we remained calm and did our this season, said his side cannot waste any job,” said Bayern winger Arjen Robben more time to catch up. Meanwhile, Gladbach won 2-1 at “Luckily the other teams have not really Paderborn thanks to early goals from had great starts. But now we need to really Patrick Herrmann and Raffael, with Jens find our rhythm,” said Hummels whose Wimmer getting one back for the promot- team is winless in their last three matches. ed club, who had been top before losing at Ivica Olic scored in the 57th minute to Bayern in midweek. Gladbach’s win took secure Wolfsburg a 2-1 victory at home them above Leverkusen, who had to play against Werder Bremen to jump to seventh more than an hour with 10 men but held place with eight points. After Ricardo on for a 0-0 draw away at SC Freiburg. Rodriguez pushed Wolfsburg ahead in the Leverkusen defender Emir Spahic was 15th minute, Marnon Busch equalised after sent off in the first half, although Freiburg 37 minutes. also finished the game a man down after Elsewhere, Hanover 96 went down 1-0 Pavel Krmas was dismissed. And the visitors at struggling VfB Stuttgart, Daniel Schwaab SPAIN: Barcelona’s Brazilian forward Neymar da Silva Santos Junior scores during the Spanish League football match against Granada. —AFP might have won it, Karim Bellarabi ham- scoring his team’s first goal at home this mering a shot off the crossbar in the 73rd season in the 69th minute. minute before Son Heung-Min also struck Mainz and Hoffenheim played out a Barca thrash Granada 6-0 the woodwork two minutes from time. “We scoreless draw on Friday, the result leaving were unfortunate today. They played really both teams with 10 points. Hamburg hope well and we just could not score,” said to finally exit the relegation zone on Leverkusen’s Oemer Toprak. Sunday as they host Eintracht Frankfurt Ronaldo scores in Real win In Gelsenkirchen, Schalke picked up after FC Augsburg welcome Hertha MADRID: Neymar scored a hat-trick and Lionel presented with an open goal, they took the lead verted from Karim Benzema’s pass to register his their second straight victory with a 2-1 win Berlin.—AFP Messi got his 400th career goal as Barcelona on 26 minutes as Neymar was gifted the ball eighth goal in a week. stormed back to the top of La Liga with a 6-0 inside the Granada half and surged forward “We’ve won a difficult game against a team German League results/standings thrashing of Granada yesterday. before seeing his effort deflect pass the helpless that played well and caused us problems,” said Real Madrid remained just four points adrift Roberto via Jean-Sylvain Babin. Messi then Real boss Carlo Ancelotti. of the leaders as Cristiano Ronaldo’s hot scoring increased his number of assists already this sea- “But the team controlled the game. We suf- Schalke 04 2 (Matip 10, Choupo-Moting 23), Borussia Dortmund 1 (Aubameyang 26); SC Freiburg 0, Bayer Leverkusen 0; VfB Stuttgart 1 (Schwaab 69) Hanover 96 0; FC Cologne 0, Bayern Munich 2 (Goetze streak continued in a 2-0 win at Villarreal. son to seven as he crossed right-footed for fered when we had to, played when we had to 19, Halfar 66-og); SC Paderborn 1 (Wemmer 70), Borussia Moenchengladbach 2 (Herrmann 8, Raffael 14); Barca stretched their run of consecutive clean Rakitic to head home and Neymar tapped into and I think in the end we showed a good atti- VfL Wolfsburg 2 (Rodriguez 15, Olic 57), Werder Bremen 1 (Busch 37). sheets to seven games, but rediscovered their an empty net to make it 3-0 after Roberto had tude and deserved to win.” scoring touch after being held to a 0-0 draw at denied Munir. The match started at a high pace with atten- Played Friday Malaga in midweek as Messi and Neymar shone. Barca continued to dominate after the break tion from the action on the pitch only momen- Mainz 05 0, Hoffenheim 0. The Brazilian opened the scoring with a and Alves provided Messi with the kind of serv- tarily distracted by a banner from a Manchester deflected effort before Messi provided the sec- ice he has been handing out in recent weeks United fans group begging Ronaldo to return to German league table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, ond with an inch-perfect cross for Ivan Rakitic to with a fine cross that the four-time World Player Old Trafford. Ronaldo and his team-mates had points): head home. of the Year headed home. Messi returned to more pressing matters at hand as Villarreal Bayern Munich 6 4 2 0 11 2 14 Borussia Dortmund 6 2 1 3 9 11 7 Neymar made it three just before half-time being the provider for Neymar to complete his threatened to go in front as Ikechukwu Uche’s Borussia M’gladbach6 3 3 0 8 3 12 Eintracht Frankfurt 5 1 3 1 7 7 6 and Messi registered his 400th goal for club and hat-trick with a cut-back that the former Santos low effort was well saved by Iker Casillas, whilst Bayer Leverkusen 6 3 2 1 11 9 11 FC Augsburg 5 2 0 3 7 8 6 country with a simple header from Dani Alves’s man dispatched low past Roberto. Argentine youngster Luciano Vietto sliced wide Hoffenheim 6 2 4 0 9 5 10 FC Cologne 6 1 3 2 2 3 6 cross. And the Argentine rounded off a fine after- when well-positioned inside the box. Mainz 05 6 2 4 0 9 5 10 Hertha Berlin 5 1 2 2 8 11 5 Hanover 6 3 1 2 5 4 10 VfB Stuttgart 6 1 2 3 4 9 5 The two then combined as Messi squared for noon by robbing the Granada defence of pos- However, the hosts’ profligacy in the final VfL Wolfsburg 6 2 2 2 10 8 8 SC Freiburg 6 0 4 2 6 9 4 Neymar to complete his hat-trick before the session and running through to slot home his third contrasted with Madrid’s killer instinct and Schalke 04 6 2 2 2 10 10 8 Werder Bremen 6 0 3 3 9 15 3 Argentine rounded off the scoring himself nine fifth goal of the season. Ancelotti’s men went in front when Modric SC Paderborn 6 2 2 2 8 8 8 Hamburg 5 0 2 3 0 6 2 minutes from time. Ronaldo, meanwhile, is now onto 13 goals smashed home his first goal of the season from Barca boss Luis Enrique had changed his from nine matches this season as Real won for outside the box on 32 minutes. And the visitors entire defence from the one that started in mid- the third consecutive league match at Villarreal. doubled their advantage five minutes before week and the hosts were nearly punished for a Real survived an early onslaught from half-time thanks to a classic counter-attack as slow start as Youssef El-Arabi clipped the bar. Villarreal and won the game with two goals in James Rodriguez picked out the run of Benzema However, Barca were soon into their stride eight minutes before the break as Luka Modric and the Frenchman brilliantly teed up Ronaldo and, after Munir El Haddadi had miscued when drilled home the opener before Ronaldo con- to slot home. —AFP Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Albion v Burnley 18:00 beIN SPORTS 1 HD beIN SPORTS 11 HD beIN SPORTS 1 HD Spanish League Getafe v Malaga 13:00 beIN SPORTS 2 HD Coruna v Almeria 18:00 beIN SPORTS 2 HD Sociedad v Valencia 20:00 COLOGNE: Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski from Poland (left) heads the ball during the German First Division Bundesliga soccer match against Cologne.