Hamburg held at Bochum

Nov 30, 2008 - 6:58 PM PA SportsTicker

Hamburg lost further ground in the Bundesliga title race Sunday after they could only manage a 1-1 draw at struggling Bochum.

Martin Jol's side, who topped the table in the early weeks of the season, could have moved up to fourth with a win but instead had to rely on a 70th-minute goal from Ivica Olic to salvage a point.

Stanislav Sestak put Bochum ahead after 39 minutes but Olic, 12 minutes after coming on as a substitute for Jerome Boateng, equalized with 20 minutes to go.

Bochum moved up a place but remain in the relegation places.

Borussia Dortmund and Wolfsburg could not muster a goal between them while Markus Babbel emerged victorious from his first home game in charge as his Stuttgart side saw off Schalke 2-0.

Babbel, who took over from the sacked Armin Veh, started his coaching career with a creditable 1-1 draw at Sampdoria in the UEFA Cup in midweek and finished a frenetic few days by ending the club's run of five games without a win.

Jefferson Farfan missed the chance to give Schalke a first-half lead, failing to convert a 23rd-minute penalty. And Schalke paid for his profligacy as Jan Simak and Mario Gomez netted late goals for the home side.

Yesterday's action was headlined by Bayern Munich's 2-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen.

Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose netted for Bayern to leave them in second place with 31 points from 15 games.

Toni opened the scoring in the 59th minute with Klose's goal coming eight minutes before the end.

Hoffenheim remain top, though, after a convincing win over Arminia Bielefeld.

Vedad Ibisevic struck his league-leading 17th goal after just five minutes. Carlos Eduardo doubled the advantage six minutes later before Francisco Copado capped the win from the penalty spot a minute before time.

Bayern host Hoffenheim on Friday with a chance to go top of the table.

Werder Bremen are off the pace after an indifferent start to the season, but they showed how dangerous they can be with a 5-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Claudio Pizarro struck a hat-trick as Werder secured a third straight home win to move up to seventh place.

Pizarro opened the scoring with goals in the 11th and 20th minutes before Diego converted a penalty in the 44th minute. Pizarro added his third just after the hour mark before Aaron Hunt completed the rout 15 minutes from time.

In a battle at the bottom, Energie Cottbus got the all-important points from a 3-1 away win over Borussia Monchengladbach to move off the foot of the table and into 15th place.

Borussia got off to a bad start when American midfielder Michael Bradley scored an own goal in the 18th minute. Dennis Sorensen then doubled the visitors' lead six minutes after the break.

Although Steve Gohouri got one back for Borussia just before the hour-mark, Emil Jula made sure of the points for Cottbus in the 85th minute.

Karlsruhe sank into last place as they went down 3-2 at Hannover.

The hosts wasted little time taking the lead as Mike Hanke scored a quickfire brace in the 12th and 18th minutes with a pair of powerful shots. The hosts grabbed their third a minute before the break with Mikael Forssell the finisher.

Karlsruhe launched a second-half comeback as Antonio de Silva scored from the spot in the 48th minute before Lars Stindl fired home four minutes from time, but it was too little too late.