Bremen smashed at home by Leverkusen

BERLIN: Werder Bremen’s Bundesliga title aspirations suffered a huge reality check as they were smashed 6-2 at home by Bayer Leverkusen with Germany winger Karim Bellarabi in outstanding form.

The result in Bremen is good news for defending German champions Bayern Munich, the only team in the league’s top six to win this weekend.

Bayern ground out a 2-1 win at Mainz on Saturday as their main rivals failed to pick up three points.

Leaders Borussia Dortmund drew 2-2 at home to Hertha Berlin on Saturday after Borussia Moenchengladbach, who are third, lost 3-1 at Freiburg on Friday.

Fourth-placed Bremen could have leap-frogged Bayern into second with a victory against Leverkusen, but instead suffered a nightmare first half and were 3-0 down at the break.

“We have forgotten one aspect of football – to cover and prevent counter-attacks,” admitted Bremen coach Florian Kohfeldt.

“This is a bitter defeat and hurts, but we won’t let it upset us.”

This was Leverkusen’s first league win since September which pulled them up to 12th.

“I hope the team can take some momentum from this win,” said Leverkusen’s relieved coach Heiko Herrlich, who had been under pressure.

Earlier on Sunday, fifth-placed RB Leipzig were held to a goalless draw at home to strugglers Schalke, who stayed out of the bottom three.

Leipzig had the ball in the Schalke net early in the second half, but Yussuf Poulsen was flagged for offside.

Elsewhere, Germany goalkeeper Kevin Trapp was furious with his Eintracht Frankfurt side after only a 92nd-minute equaliser salvaged their recent unbeaten run in a 1-1 draw at Nuremberg.

Frankfurt are six games without defeat in all competitions after Sebastian Haller’s late leveller, but Trapp was far from impressed.

“I don’t know if we’ve won too much or if the mood (in the squad) was too good, but we can’t go believing we’ll just knock Nuremberg over like that,” fumed Trapp on Eurosport.

“It was simply a bad performance from us.”