Bayern Munich were made to wait at least one more week before being able to celebrate winning a league record fourth straight Bundesliga title, despite beating Hertha Berlin 2-0 today.
Arturo Vidal and Douglas Costa ensured Pep Guardiola’s men took maximum points once again, but Borussia Dortmund’s 3-0 win at Stuttgart means they are still one win short of clinching the title.
Shinji Kagawa, Christian Pulisic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ensured Dortmund kept some suspense in the title chase with a convincing win at the Mercedes-Benz-Arena.
For 17-year-old Pulisic, it was a second goal in as many games, making the USA international the youngest player in Bundesliga history to have two goals to his name.
With Bayern and Dortmund both certain of their places in next season’s Champions League, Bayer Leverkusen moved a step closer to joining them with a 3-2 win at Schalke.
Trailing 2-0 at half-time through goals from Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Leroy Sane, and after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar also had a penalty saved, Leverkusen hit back in the second half at the Arena AufSchalke to open up a five-point advantage over fourth-placed Hertha.
Julian Brandt, Karim Bellarabi and Javier Hernandez turned the game on its head in the space of six second-half minutes to dent Schalke’s hopes of catching them.
Schalke are instead likely to qualify for the Europa League next season, although they still need to look over their shoulders with Cologne and Ingolstadt just five points behind them.
Anthony Modeste and Marcel Risse were both on target twice in Cologne’s 4-1 win over Darmstadt, for whom Jerome Gondorf scored a consolation.
Alfredo Morales and Moritz Hartmann put Ingolstadt 2-0 up against Hannover, who were staring relegation in the face until Hiroki Sakai and Hiroshi Kiyotake levelled to keep them in the top flight – albeit only just. They are nine points adrift of the relegation play-off berth with three games of the season to go, with their inferior goal difference effectively condemning them.
Saturday’s other game saw Augsburg pull five points clear of the relegation zone with their third successive win, a 2-0 triumph at Wolfsburg which leaves the Wolves looking unlikely to qualify for Europe next season.
Alfred Finnbogason and Halil Altintop scored Augsburg’s goals at the Volkswagen-Arena.
