Sports

Late Mueller goal lifts Bayern

December 16, 2017
Munich's midfielder Thomas Mueller (C) celebrates with teammates after he scored during the German first division Bundesliga football match against VfB Stuttgart in Stuttgart Saturday. — AFP
Munich's midfielder Thomas Mueller (C) celebrates with teammates after he scored during the German first division Bundesliga football match against VfB Stuttgart in Stuttgart Saturday. — AFP

BERLIN — A late Thomas Mueller goal and a stoppage-time penalty save by Sven Ulreich gave Bayern Munich a nervous 1-0 victory at VfB Stuttgart Saturday to go into the winter break with an 11-point lead.

Borussia Dortmund also made sure of a happy Bundesliga break, coming from a goal down to beat Hoffenheim 2-1 thanks to Christian Pulisic's superb 89th-minute winner, for their second straight victory under new coach Peter Stoeger.

Bayern, which faces Dortmund in the German Cup Wednesday, was again far from effective and looked somewhat surprised by the level of resistance offered by Stuttgart.

Its opponents gradually ran out of steam after the hour, however, and Bayern started creating more chances through Corentin Tolisso and Kingsley Coman.

Frenchman Coman found Mueller in the box and the striker fired in from a tight corner to beat Ron-Robert Zieler in the 79th minute. Bayern then survived the late penalty scare with Ulreich denying the hosts.

The win lifted Bayern to 41 points, with second-placed Schalke 04 rescuing a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt to move on to 30.

RB Leipzig, third on 28 can overtake Schalke Sunday, when they take on Hertha Berlin.

Dortmund's Pulisic picked up a Shinji Kagawa cross and passed from one foot to the other, before volleying in the winner to lift his team back into third place on 28.

Hoffenheim had taken the lead with Mark Uth but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's penalty in the 63rd minute had drawn Dortmund level.

Bottom club Cologne beat VfL Wolfsburg 1-0, celebrating their first win of the season, while lowly Werder Bremen squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against relegation rivals Mainz 05. — AP


December 16, 2017
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