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Relentless Bayern victorious in German Bundesliga

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IANS Berlin

While Bayern crushed Paderborn 6-0, Bremen's Sebastian Proedl and Augsburg's goalkeeper Marwin Hitz secured their clubs last grasp equalisers in the 22nd round of Bundesliga.

Front-runners Bayern Munich showed Paderborn no mercy as they humiliated the newly promoted side with six goals, Xinhua reported Saturday.

Paderborn were able to keep the pace in the first half but Robert Lewandowski's brace within 37 minutes smoothed the way for the victory.

Paderborn's situation changed from bad to worse after the restart as defender Florian Hartherz brought down Arjen Robben inside the box to see a straight red card, causing a penalty for visitors. Robben stepped up and converted the penalty for a 3-0 lead at the 63rd minute.

 

Ten men Paderborn were now unable to keep up resistance as Franck Ribery and Mitchell Weiser made it 5-0 on the scoreboard before Robben scored his 16th goal of the season, to round off the 6-0 victory, which is their 17th of the season.

Bayern Munich stay atop the standings with 55 points and Paderborn slumped to the 15th place.

Werder Bremen's five-game winning streak came to an end, yet the "Green-Whites" secured one point, as Schalke were unable to protect their narrow lead to the end.

After a goalless first half Schalke broke the deadlock through youngster Max Meyer, whose long-range effort slipped through the arms of Bremen goalkeeper Raphael Wolf at the 61st minute.

It looked like Bremen would suffer their ninth loss of the season but Sebastian Proedl headed the leveller in the dying minutes of the game allowing the visitors to snatch one point.

With the result, Bremen remain in eighth place and Schalke in fourth.

In-form Augsburg and Bayer Leverkusen staged a fast paced see-saw encounter, which ended with a two-all draw after 90 minutes.

The visitors from Leverkusen caught a bright start on the road as Josip Drmic opened the scoring just eight minutes into the game. The Swiss international capitalized on a fumble by Augsburg goalkeeper Marwin Hitz to poke home with a follow up shot from a sharp angle.

Leverkusen dictated the proceedings on the pitch but they failed to turn their chances into tangible rewards.

The hosts punished Leverkusen's wastefulness in the second half, when Caiuby utilised a combination via Daniel Baier to level the scores in the 59th minute.

The equaliser gave Augsburg momentum but it were the visitors who grabbed the 2-1 lead, as Stefan Reinartz slotted home a deflected shot in the 84th minute.

However, Augsburg's goalkeeper Hitz compensated for his fumble in the opening period, when he scored the late equaliser for his side.

The hosts had the chance to score the winner moments later but Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno denied Halil Altintop.

With the 2-2 draw Augsburg defended their fifth place against sixth placed Leverkusen.

Elsewhere, Mainz secured a 3-1 victory against Frankfurt at the debut of their new coach Martin Schmidt.

Relegation threatened Freiburg shared the spoils with Hoffenheim following a 1-1 draw as well as Cologne and Hannover.

The following fixtures are scheduled for Sunday: Hamburg encounter third-placed Monchengladbach and second-placed Wolfsburg host relegation threatened Berlin.

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First Published: Feb 22 2015 | 8:40 AM IST

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