Borussia Dortmund completed their spectacular implosion this season, losing 2-1 at struggling Werder Bremen yesterday, their 10th defeat in 17 league games sending them into the winter break in 17th place, just a point off the bottom.
Talented teenager Davie Selke scored Werder’s first goal in the third minute and last season’s Bundesliga runners-up never recovered, their leaking defence and lack of attacking ideas proving costly.
Werder hit them on the break with Selke charging down the right wing past two Dortmund players to deliver a cross for Fin Bartels on the hour.
Mats Hummels’s diving header in the 69th gave the visitors hope and Shinji Kagawa should have done better when he fired over the bar from 11 metres as Dortmund pressed for an equaliser.
The result left Dortmund, champions in 2011 and 2012, on 15 points, two behind VfB Stuttgart who are in the relegation play-off spot. Freiburg, last on 14, could send Dortmund bottom if they beat Hanover today.
Fellow Champions League club Bayer Leverkusen climbed to third place thanks to an 83rd-minute equaliser from Germany international Karim Bellarabi which rescued a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Borussia Moenchengladbach dropped to fourth, a point behind, after losing 2-1 against in-form Augsburg, who joined them on 27 points.
On Friday, Arjen Robben scored a 90th-minute winner in a 2-1 victory at Mainz to send Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich into the winter break with a commanding 11-point lead.
Dutchman Robben, who has been outstanding for Bayern all season and was also on target last week against Freiburg, netted his tenth league goal at the end of the game, tapping in from close range after a second-string Bayern Munich struggled against gutsy Mainz.
The Bavarians have seen their team ravaged by bad luck, with Xabi Alonso, Robert Lewan-dowski, Medhi Benatia and Sebastian Rode injured in the win over Freiburg and joining half -a-dozen more on the sidelines.
Results
Augsburg 2 - B. M’gladbach 1
B. Leverkusen 1 - E. Frankfurt 1
Schalke 0 - Hamburg 0
Stuttgart 0 - Paderborn 0
W. Bremen 2 - B. Dortmund 1
Wolfsburg 2 - Cologne 1
P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
B. Munich | 17 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 41 | 4 | 45 |
Wolfsburg | 17 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 33 | 17 | 34 |
B. Leverkusen | 17 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 28 | 20 | 28 |
B. M’gladbach | 17 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 25 | 16 | 27 |
Schalke | 17 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 28 | 21 | 27 |
Augsburg | 17 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 21 | 27 |
E. Frankfurt | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 34 | 34 | 23 |
Hoffenheim | 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 24 | 25 | 23 |
Hanover | 16 | 7 | 2 | 7 | 19 | 24 | 23 |
Paderborn | 17 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 21 | 26 | 19 |
Cologne | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 17 | 23 | 19 |
Mainz | 17 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 19 | 23 | 18 |
Hertha Berlin | 16 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 24 | 30 | 18 |
Hamburg | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 9 | 19 | 17 |
Stuttgart | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 20 | 32 | 17 |
W. Bremen | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 26 | 39 | 17 |
B. Dortmund | 17 | 4 | 3 | 10 | 18 | 26 | 15 |
Freiburg | 16 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 15 | 23 | 14 |
Playing today
Hertha Berlin vs Hoffenheim - 15.30
Freiburg vs Hanover - 17.30