Dortmund lose ground with defeat

Borussia Dortmund lost ground on the Bundesliga front runners with a 2-1 defeat at lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach today.

Borussia Dortmund lost ground on the Bundesliga front runners with a 2-1 defeat at lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach today.

The 1997 European champions, who have a long injury list, dropped one place to sixth and are 12 points behind new leaders Werder Bremen with one game left before the halfway stage.

Croatian defender Sladan Asanin struck the winner seven minutes from time for once great Moenchengladbach, who climbed one spot to 14th in the 18-team table.

Slovakia midfielder Igor Demo had put the home side in the lead 11 minutes into an entertaining game but Dortmund's Czech striker Jan Koller equalised a minute later.

READ MORE

Striker Fernando Baiano was instrumental in VfL Wolfsburg's 2-1 home win over Hanover 96 in Sunday's other Bundesliga match.

The Brazilian equalised in the 29th minute, after striker Daniel Stendel had put Hanover ahead in the 14th minute, and then set up Bulgarian Martin Petrov, who hit the winner from 18 metres in the 68th minute.

Wolfsburg remained in seventh place but have joined Dortmund on 24 points while Hanover slipped two places to 12th.

Werder Bremen moved back to the top with a 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday.

Champions Bayern Munich handed VfB Stuttgart their first Bundesliga defeat of the season, beating them 1-0, also on Saturday.

Stuttgart, who had gone 15 matches without losing, drop to second place a point back. Bayern remained fourth but moved level on points with third-placed Bayer Leverkusen and closed the gap on the top spot to four points.