 |
|
Germany: Stop-gap Voller guides Leverkusen to victory [Mon Sep 19th, 2005]
Berlin (AFP) - Caretaker manager Rudi Voller may not want to become the next Bayer Leverkusen boss, but he underlined his credentials with his side coming from behind to defeat MSV Duisburg 3-1.
Former Germany coach Voller, sporting director at Leverkusen, volunteered to take over after Klaus Augenthaler was sacked, and started with three points.
Klemen Lavric put hosts Duisburg in front on 31 minutes, but Brazilian international Juan levelled six minutes later.
Dimitar Berbatov then scored his fifth goal of the season in the 41st minute to turn the game on its head, before Brazilian defender Athirson scored his first Bundesliga goal late on.
After enduring their worst start in 22 years, Leverkusen climb to seventh.
In other action, Schalke 04 fell further off the title pace following a 0-0 draw with ten-man Hertha Berlin.
Schalke played against ten men for 65 minutes but were lucky to escape with a point with visitors Hertha the more dangerous.
The capital side were reduced to ten men after 25 minutes when Brazilian international defender Gilberto was sent off for backchat.
Gilberto received an initial booking for a foul on Lincoln and then applauded the decision sarcastically.
Manchester United's hot-head Wayne Rooney was dismissed for something similar in the midweek match with Villarreal and referee Felix Brych upheld the law by sending Gilberto off with another caution.
But even with 61,000 fans behind them and a numerical advantage Schalke failed to make the breakthrough and are now six points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
German league table after Sunday's matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points):
Bayern Munich 5 5 0 0 14 3 15
Werder Bremen 5 4 1 0 16 6 13
SV Hamburg 5 3 2 0 10 3 11
Schalke 04 5 2 3 0 6 4 9
FC Cologne 5 3 0 2 9 8 9
Hertha Berlin 5 2 2 1 7 5 8
Bayer Leverkusen 5 2 1 2 11 10 7
Kaiserslautern 5 2 1 2 10 12 7
Hannover 5 1 3 1 6 5 6
VfB Stuttgart 5 1 3 1 7 7 6
VfL Wolfsburg 5 1 3 1 6 8 6
Borussia Dortmund 5 1 2 2 8 9 5
Borussia Monchengladbach 5 1 2 2 5 8 5
Arminia Bielefeld 5 1 2 2 5 8 5
Eintracht Frankfurt 5 1 1 3 3 9 4
MSV Duisburg 5 0 2 3 7 12 2
FC Nuremberg 5 0 2 3 3 8 2
Mainz 05 5 0 0 5 2 10 0
News headlines from around the world.