Bayern Munich Come From Behind Against Werder Bremen, St. Pauli Thrash Cologne

Bayern Munich added to Werder Bremen’s troubles near the bottom of the table as they came from a goal down in the final twenty-five minutes to win 3-1. The Bavarians were the better side in the first half, but failed to find a way through the Bremen defence. Per Mertesacker, up from the back, punished Bayern just after the break as he squeezed the ball in from a narrow angle after a Torsten Frings free-kick was knocked down by Sebastian Prödl.

It was looking like another bad away day for the visitors until Arjen Robben tapped in Daniel Pranjic’s cross while airborne in the sixty-fifth minute. Mertesacker then sent Bayern ahead as he put through his own net ten minutes later, and Bayern wrapped up the win as Thomas Müller and Miroslav Klose won an easy two-on-one against Tim Wiese, with Klose scoring his first goal in the Bundesliga this season. Wiese was sent off in the waning minutes for a flying tackle on Thomas Müller, but Bayern didn’t take advantage of their one-man edge. The win moves Bayern up to third, while Bremen fall to fifteenth.

The team that has taken over the fourteenth place that formerly belong to Bremen is St. Pauli, who took Cologne apart at the Millerntor-Stadion. The home side were 2-0 up at halftime courtesy of a brace from Charles Takyi, Florian Bruns added a third from the penalty spot in the second half, and the only disappointing aspect for St. Pauli is that they could have scored several more.

Elsewhere, Borussia Dortmund cruised past Wolfsburg 3-0 at the Volkswagen Arena to restore their eleven-point lead at the top of the table. BVB were ahead after just two minutes, Mario Götze slid the ball across the face of goal to Lucas Barrios, who tapped in for his ninth league goal of the season. Nuri Sahin doubled Dortmund’s advantage before halftime, and Mats Hummels added the third goal from a corner kick late in the second half. Nürnberg got back on track with a 2-0 win over Hamburg SV that included a Timmy Simmons penalty and a very harsh red card for Gojko Kacar, and Schalke 04 fell 1-0 to Hoffenheim in a forgettable match at the Veltins Arena.