Germany's top three battle for league and cup titles

By Barry Whelan Feb 12, 2012, 14:27 GMT

Berlin - The German Bundesliga is threatening to become a three-team race after victories by Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Borussia Moenchengladbach, while Schalke lost ground.

The top three are also battling it out in the semi-finals of the German Cup, with the draw late Saturday pitting Borussia Moenchengladbach against Bayern, while Dortmund come up against second-division Greuther Fuerth.

Meanwhile another coach was ejected Sunday as the entire bottom half of the table and even some clubs above the halfway mark struggle not to get caught up in a relegation battle.

Hertha Berlin's 5-0 humbling at VfB Stuttgart proved to be the last game for Michael Skibbe, who had only been appointed in the winter break to replace the also-sacked Markus Babbel.

The change of coach completely backfired, with Hertha losing five straight games, four in the league. Babbel has meanwhile taken up residence at Hoffenheim, who this week dumped Holger Stanislowski, a coach who came in the summer from St Pauli to replicate the passion of the Hamburg cult club, but failed to lift it out of mediocrity.

Hertha won't have it any easier next weekend when Dortmund are the visitors to the Olympic Stadium. The defending champions stayed two points clear at the top after overcoming Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 thanks to a goal just before half-time by Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa.

Dortmund have now won their last five league games and have gone 15 games without defeat, equalling the club record set last season on the way to their league title.

Patience and resilience were the key to Dortmund's victory over Leverkusen, with Juergen Klopp pleased in particular with his side's defensive play after going in front.

'It is an exceptional performance to allow so little at the back against an opponent like this. We have passed the test today, now it carries on,' Klopp said.

Bayern kept pace with a 2-0 defeat of struggling Kaiserslautern, Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller heading first-half goals, and will be keen to maintain the improvement with a visit to bottom side Freiburg next weekend.

'It's proof of our upward trend,' coach Jupp Heynckes said. 'It was a fully merited win, and we played very good football at times.

'I'm specially pleased with the way we defended. We've kept another clean sheet and basically shut out the opposition. I'm delighted about that.'

The season's surprise side Moenchengladbach won't be shaken off, their 3-0 thumping of Schalke keeping them a point behind Bayern and taking their undefeated series to seven.

The cup draw now gives Gladbach the chance of beating Bayern for a third time this season to move into the cup final, while a Champions League spot is becoming a distinct possibility - unthinkable after narrowly avoiding relegation in a play-off last season.

Trophy talk seems to be off limits at Gladbach to judge by post-match interviews where 'taking each game as it comes' seems to be the favourite response to any questions about titles.

Swiss coach Lucien Favre said 'everything went our way' against Schalke, with the goals coming in little over the first half hour through Marko Reus, Mike Hanke and Juan Arango.

Schalke can still claim it's a four-team race as they are only five points behind Ruhr rivals Dortmund despite the defeat, and eight ahead of fifth-placed Werder Bremen.

However the defeat left Dutch coach Huub Stevens fuming, telling Sky TV: 'When some players run like they did today, especially towards the end of the game, then they shouldn't go on the pitch because it's not worth them playing for Schalke. It's as simple as that.'

General manager Horst Heldt, however, played down the setback which 'does nothing to change our target for the season.'

He added: 'We aren't going to stop playing and we certainly aren't going to ruin everything with negative talk. We have it in our own hands to do things better, after all.'