MUNICH: Robert Lewandowski scored his 60th goal of the year as leader Bayern Munich won 2-1 against previously unbeaten Freiburg in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Lewandowski knocked the ball in from close range in the 76th minute after stretching to redirect Leroy Sané’s attempted shot. Of his 60 goals in 2021, 51 have come for Bayern and nine for Poland. Lewandowski had set a new single-season scoring record for the Bundesliga with 41 goals in 2020-21.
Leon Goretzka gave Bayern the lead in the 30th off a slick team passing move and could have scored more in the second half, when he hit the post with one shot and clipped the crossbar with another.
Janik Haberer ensured a nervy finish when he scored for Freiburg in added time as Bayern conceded its 10th goal in four games in all competitions.
A day after getting his first call-up to the German national team, striker Lukas Nmecha scored the only goal of the game in Wolfsburg’s 1-0 win over Augsburg.
Nmecha headed in off Paulo Otavio’s cross in the 14th to score in his third successive game in the Bundesliga and Champions League. That kept up new coach Florian Kohfeldt’s winning start at Wolfsburg after a 2-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen last week and a 2-1 defeat of Salzburg in the Champions League.
Both goalkeepers tried to score goals as Bochum beat Hoffenheim 2-0, but neither made it work.
Bochum was already leading 1-0 from Soma Novothny’s goal when it won a penalty and selected goalkeeper Manuel Riemann to take it, but he blasted the ball far off target.
Deep in stoppage time, Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann went up to the opposing penalty area for a corner, allowing Bochum’s Miloš Pantovic to score into the empty net from inside his own half on the counterattack.
Relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld got its first league win of the season, beating Stuttgart 1-0 thanks to Japanese winger Masaya Okugawa’s goal on the counter.
Second-place Borussia Dortmund visits Leipzig later Saturday.
Lewandowski scores in Bayern win for 60th goal of 2021
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Lewandowski scores in Bayern win for 60th goal of 2021
- Lewandowski knocked the ball in from close range in the 76th minute after stretching to redirect Leroy Sané's attempted shot
- Leon Goretzka gave Bayern the lead in the 30th off a slick team passing move
Sanders crashes out of Dakar Rally contention and Al-Attiyah reclaims car lead
- The Australian’s KTM finished 28 minutes behind stage 10 winner Adrien van Beveren’s Honda
- Al-Attiyah has a sixth Dakar triumph in sight
BISHA, Saudi Arabia: Dakar Rally front-runner Daniel Sanders crashed and fell out of motorbike title contention and Nasser Al-Attiyah snatched back the car lead in the Saudi desert on Wednesday.
Sanders broke his left collarbone and sternum jumping a dune 138 kilometers into the 368-kilometer second half of a marathon stage to Bisha. The defending champion continued but slower and within 30 kilometers his six-minute overnight lead was gone.
The Australian’s KTM finished 28 minutes behind stage 10 winner Adrien van Beveren’s Honda and he dropped from first overall to fourth, more than 17 minutes back, two minutes off the podium.
That left the title to be decided between new leader Ricky Brabec and Luciano Benavides, second and third on the stage. The American’s Honda and Argentine’s KTM were separated overall by 56 seconds ahead of, effectively, a two stage shootout. The final stage on Saturday is usually a ceremonial ride.
Brabec won the Dakar in 2020 and 2024 while Benavides has never won; best placing was fourth last year.
Al-Attiyah has a sixth Dakar triumph in sight.
The dunes specialist from Qatar stamped his authority on the sandy special to finish second to Mathieu Serradori, who gave South African manufacturer Century its first Dakar stage win.
Serradori won his second career stage by six minutes.
The Fords of Nani Roma (first overnight), Carlos Sainz (second) and Mattias Ekström (fifth) were the biggest losers.
Ekström was first to the checkpoint at 91 kilometers but moments later suffered a mechanical problem. Roma lost his way and dropped 10 minutes just before passing 200 kilometers. Sainz also made a navigation error in the soft sand.
“I’m knackered, my back hurts, I suffered a lot today,” Roma said. “But that’s part of the game.”
Also, Toyota’s Henk Lategan, fourth overnight, ran out of fuel and made a navigation error.
Al-Attiyah grabbed the provisional overall lead about 200 kilometers into the 420-kilometer special and topped a Dacia 2-3-4 stage finish with Sébastien Loeb and Lucas Moraes.
“My head and body have taken a real beating,” Al-Attiyah said. “But we really attacked from start to finish. Fabian (Lurquin, navigator) did a great job and we can feel both happy and lucky because it was really hard.”
Overall, Al-Attiyah earned his biggest lead yet, over Lategan by 12 minutes, Roma by nearly 13 and Loeb by 23. Ekström and Sainz fell more than 34 minutes back.
