Bayern set new record
South Korea’s Son scores hat-trick for Leverkusen; Dortmund lose
munich — Bayern Munich set an unbeaten record, Borussia Dortmund lost again, Bayer Leverkusen’s Son Heung-Min scored a hat-trick and there was goal line controversy as 27 goals were scored in six Bundesliga matches on Saturday.
South Korea forward Son led Bayer Leverkusen to a 5-3 win over his former club Hamburg SV which pulled them level on points with second-placed Dortmund in a match featuring calamitous defending and superb finishing by both sides. Dortmund, beaten 1-0 at home by Arsenal in the Champions League on Wednesday, were sunk by a superb Ivica Olic strike in their 2-1 defeat at Wolfsburg as last season’s runners-up showed worrying signs of a slump.
Bayern Munich beat Augsburg 3-0 to set a Bundesliga record of 37 matches undefeated in what was their seventh straight home win and which increased their lead at the top to four points. Last season’s treble winners, who overhauled the record set by Hamburg 30 years ago, have not been beaten in the league since Oct. 28 last year when they lost 2-1 at Leverkusen.
Bayern have 32 points from 12 games, four clear of Dortmund who are level with Leverkusen. Six points further back are Borussia Moenchengladbach whose 3-1 home victory over winless Nuremberg contained the goal line controversy.
Bottom side Nuremberg were 2-1 down when Josip Drmic’s shot
27 goals in 6 matches on
Saturday
bounced down off the crossbar on to the line. Despite appeals, no goal was given and television replays were inconclusive.
Drmic had put Nuremberg ahead after 21 minutes but Juan Arango levelled in the 72nd before a Niklas Stark own goal after 75 put the hosts in front. Patrick Hermann’s effort three minutes from time sealed the win.
At Wolfsburg, Dortmund went ahead in first-half stoppage time with a Marco Reus free kick.
Ricardo Rodriguez equalised for the Wolves from a free kick in a thrilling second period before Olic scored the winner with a superb curling effort while Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski had two penalty appeals turned down.
“It was a game with, let’s say, lots of players on the floor and lots of free kicks. In some situations, everything went against us,” said Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp. “They could have given us one of the two penalties.” Unheralded Le- verkusen suggested they could be Bayern’s biggest challengers this season after winning an eight-goal humdinger against former Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk’s Hamburg.
Son, who joined Leverkusen from Hamburg this season, scored two superbly-taken goals in the first 16 minutes, Maximilian Beister pulled one back for Hamburg and Pierre-Michael Lasogga levelled in the 50th minute. Son put Sami Hyppia’s Leverkusen back in front five minutes later with another coolly-taken goal and set up a fourth for Stefan Kiessling to extend Leverkusen’s lead. —