Bayern survive Bremen scare to pile pressure back on Dortmund

BERLIN: Serge Gnabry scored his second goal in two games to help Bayern Munich to a 2-1 win over Werder Bremen on Sunday, moving his side a step closer to an 11th successive Bundesliga title. Gnabry netted the opener as Bayern battled to a hard-fought win which strengthened their grip on first place and heaped pressure on title rivals Borussia Dortmund. The league leaders are now four points ahead of Dortmund, who have a game in hand against Wolfsburg on Sunday.

Bayern toiled in the first half and were lucky not to concede when Christian Gross fired a shot inches over the bar on 35 minutes. Sadio Mane came close to putting the champions ahead after the break, but it wasn’t until just after the hour mark that Gnabry broke the deadlock. Pouncing on a loose ball in the penalty area, the Germany international slotted the ball past Jiri Pavlenka in the Bremen goal.

Leroy Sane added a second from the bench ten minutes later, before Niklas Schmidt pulled a goal back with a spectacular long-range effort. But that wasn’t enough for Bremen to avoid a 13th straight home defeat to Bayern, in a run stretching back to 2009. Elsewhere, a late goal from Kevin Kampl put RB Leipzig back on course for the Champions League spots with a 1-0 win over fellow top-four hopefuls Freiburg.

Kampl’s dainty chip on 73 minutes gave his side a 1-0 win in an otherwise stagnant game in Freiburg, just days after Leipzig had won a German Cup semifinal in the same stadium. “That was a big week for us. We controlled the game from the start and deserved to win,” said Leipzig striker Timo Werner.