Leverkusen press claims as Hamburg stumble
BERLIN (AFP) — Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday pressed their claims for a place in the Champions League next season when they beat Hanover 2-0 to close within a point of Hamburg, who could only draw 0-0 with Nuremberg.
First half goals from Greek international Theofanis Gekas and Swiss star Tranquillo Barnetta were enough for Leverkusen, who reached the 2002 Champions League final, as they moved onto 41 points from 23 games, to third-placed Hamburg's 42.
Werder Bremen are on 43 and hence stay second despite Saturday's 6-3 loss to inconsistent defending champions Stuttgart.
Leverkusen now have a three-point cushion over fifth-placed Schalke, still in this season's Champions League after seeing off Porto in midweek to reach the last eight.
Bayern Munich are a healthy seven points clear of the pack after Saturday's 2-0 win over Karlsruhe, aiming at a UEFA Cup spot as the surprise package of the season.
Bayern took the points with goals from Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni and Frank Ribery.
The France international's 65th minute effort was one to savour as he slalomed through the defence before nutmegging a defender for his sixth goal of the season and his third in the last 10 days.
"He was everywhere, he's impressive, a player like that can make the difference all by himself," marvelled Karlsruhe's captain Maik Franz.
Ribery, who signed for a Bundesliga record of 26 million euros, has played himself into the hearts of the Bayern fans after a scintillating first season since arriving from Marseille.
Stuttgart did Bayern a huge favour with their six-goal show against Bremen which saw German international Mario Gomez net a hat-trick to compound a bad week for the visitors, who were beaten by Rangers in the UEFA Cup on Thursday.
This painful defeat will have been all the harder to take for Werder who had opened the scoring.
The club's sporting director Klaus Allofs said: "It's not an excuse but we were without (suspended midfielder) Diego which may explain a few things."
Schalke followed up on their success in Porto by ending a run of three straight league defeats with a 2-0 win at Arminia Bielefeld to go fifth, 12 points adrift of the top.
