Bayer Leverkusen warmed up for their Champions League clash at Barcelona with a 2-0 home win against Bayern Munich on Saturday, as the Bavarians' poor form continued.
The hosts took the lead on 79 minutes when ex-Germany striker Stefan Kiessling tapped the ball home from two yard after Swiss forward Eren Derdiyok's overhead kick took Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer out of the game.
Midfielder Karim Bellarabi, 21, had been on the pitch just eight minutes when he supported Gonzalo Castro's break to slot home Leverkusen's second and claim his first goal for Bayer, sending the home crowd delirious.
Leverkusen are at Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium on Wednesday, needing to overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash.
Victory keeps Leverkusen fifth in the league, but with leaders Borussia Dortmund hosting mid-table Mainz on Saturday night, the defending champions can open a seven-point gap if they pick up their eighth straight win.
Third-placed Borussia Moenchengladbach can usurp Bayern from second place in the league if they win at Nuremberg on Sunday.
Bayern's form has deserted them since Christmas and this was their sixth defeat in the league in total, while they have won only four of their last nine games this year.
They face a make-or-break few weeks and have to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their last-16 tie against FC Basel on March 13 in the Champions League, before a German Cup semi-final at Gladbach on March 21.
The Bavarians are bidding to avoid a repeat of last season, when they finished in the rare position of having won no silverware.
Stuttgart are eighth in the table after they earned a 4-0 win at Hamburg.
Hertha Berlin finally broke their seven-match losing streak with a 1-0 win over Werder Bremen as ex-Greece coach Otto Rehhagel, who steered the Greeks to the Euro 2004 title, enjoyed his first win in only his second game in charge.
Schalke's ambitions of winning a first Bundesliga title suffered a dent as they fell 2-1 at Freiburg, which lifted the hosts off the bottom of the table.
The Royal Blues finished with 10 men as Greece defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos was sent off after earning a second yellow card towards the end of the second half.
Kaiserslautern are now bottom of the table after their goalless draw with VfL Wolfsburg, while Augsburg are 16th after their 2-2 draw at Hanover.
Source: AFP
