Hamburg move off the ‘bottom’

Eintracht fall

BERLIN, Dec 5, (AFP): Hamburg moved off the bottom of the Bundesliga table on Sunday after securing their first league win of the season with a 2-0 victory at fellowstrugglers Darmstadt.

RB Leipzig finish the weekend top of the table after their 2-1 win at home to Schalke on Saturday night extended their unbeaten run to 13 games — a league record for a side in their first Bundesliga season.

The victory saw them replace Bayern Munich, who won 3-1 at Freiburg on Friday thanks to two goals from Robert Lewandowski, to go three points clear of Carlo Ancelotti’s Bavarian giants.

At the other end of the table, Ingolstadt, who lost 2-1 at Bremen on Saturday, are now bottom after Hamburg’s Michael Gregoritsch scored his third goal in two games to give his side a first-half lead at Darmstadt.

It was just a fifth win in 16 matches for Marseille this season as the fallen French giants climbed back into the top half of the table, 18 points behind leaders Nice.

Rennes moved up to fourth as second-half goals from Paul-Georges Ntep and Kamil Grosicki earned them a 2-0 win at home to Saint-Etienne.

On Saturday, Radamel Falcao scored twice as Monaco thrashed Bastia 5-0, but PSG crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Montpellier to lose ground in the title race.

However, the action was overshadowed by incidents in Metz where Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes was taken to hospital with hearing problems after home fans targeted the Portugal international with firecrackers.

Fortunately, the 26-year-old confirmed there would be no lasting damage, but Metz could face heavy sanctions from authorities including forfeiting a game they had led 1-0 before it was abandoned in the 31st minute.