Karlsruhe stay fourth as Bayern's lead is cut</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>BERLIN (AFP) - Bayern Munich's lead at the top of the Bundesliga has been cut to just two points while Karlsruhe kept up their impressive form with a 1-0 win at home to strugglers Duisburg on Sunday. Karlsruhe defender Mario Eggimann headed home midfielder Tamas Hajnal's free-kick on 29 minutes to give last season's second division champions their seventh win of the season and keep them fourth in the table. Duisburg defender Bjoern Schlicke was shown a red card for a reckless tackle in the penalty area with five minutes left, but the resulting penalty was saved by goalkeeper Tom Starke. On Saturday, Hamburg defender Bastian Reinhardt struck nine minutes from time to seal a 2-1 win over Hertha Berlin to put his side two points behind Bayern. Hamburg's run of nine wins in their last 10 games, including six Bundesliga wins, has moved them into second and genuine title contenders following Bayern's 0-0 draw at home to Eintracht Frankfurt. Despite star performers Miroslav Klose, Luca Toni and Franck Ribery missing a string of chances, Bayern just could not break down Frankfurt's stoic defence. "We made plenty of chances and we deserved to win, but it was one of those days when the ball just won't go in," said chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The match statistics support Rummenigge. Bayern had 38 shots on goal to their opponents' five, dominated the corner count 16-2, won 59 percent of their tackles and enjoyed 63 percent of the possession. "That basically says it all," said coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. "We gave it everything we had, but it wasn't to be." Werder Bremen are third in the table after Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida poached a 39th minute goal at home to Hansa Rostock to seal their 1-0 win. And defending champions VfB Stuttgart claimed their second consecutive Bundesliga win as Germany's player of the year Mario Gomez showed his class with a superb winning goal on 25 minutes. Hanover are up to fifth in the table after Hungarian midfielder Szabolcs Huszti converted a 55th minute penalty at home to Borussia Dortmund and defender Christian Schulz grabbed a second goal before Dortmund grabbed a consolation. Bayer Leverkusen are sixth and had no problems in their 4-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld, who are plummeting towards the relegation zone. Greek striker Theofanis Gekas struck twice in five first-half minutes after his forward partner Sergej Barbarez gave Bayer an early lead before adding a second goal 10 minutes from time with a simple tap in. There was a shock on Friday night as bottom side Energie Cottbus picked up their first win of the season when they surprised seventh-placed Schalke 04 1-0. Former French youth international Christian Bassila grabbed the only goal in coach Petrik Sander's first win since taking over the reins in September while Schalke now face Chelsea in Tuesday night's Champions League clash. On Sunday, there was a eight-goal bonanza as midtable VfL Bochum produced a little bit of magic to hammer VfL Wolfsburg 5-3 with Slovakian striker Stanislav Sestak leading the charge. Sestak put his side ahead with a header on four minutes and completed the rout on a minute before the break when he beat the defence and slammed his shot past Wolfsburg's goalkeeper Simon Jentzsch for his second. But the guests hit back as first defender Marcel Schaefer scored on 50 minutes before Brazilian Grafite added a second six minutes later, but Cameroon striker Joel Epalle made it 5-2 on 63 minutes with a good individual goal. Grafite added his second to make it 5-3 with under 20 minutes remaining, but it was too little, too late.</div></p>
