What A Goal! The Heartbeat of Hannover, Sergio Pinto.

Today’s matches were as surprising as any this season, with the picks of the day coming from Gladbach, who picked up a convincing win away to Koln, and Kaiserslautern, who showed their steel at home against Stuttgart. Let’s get to the results.

FC Koln 0 – 4 Borussia Monchengladbach

Gladbach finally claimed a win – and an unlikely one that that – to break their nine match streak without a Bundesliga victory. Koln, who sacked Zvonimir Soldo after a run of poor results, look set for relegation after picking up just eight points from their first twelve Bundesliga fixtures. Gladbach, a side who have been a shambles up until this afternoon, absolutely trounced the hosts. This is not only a shock result, but a completely embarrassing one as well. Four second half goals won it for Gladbach, with Raul Bobadilla hitting a brace, and Michael Bradley and Igor de Camargo picking up the other two. Four shots on target and four goals. That’ll be disappointing for Miro Varvodic, who hasn’t looked a bad choice between the sticks in his fledgling Bundesliga career.

Kaiserslautern 3 – 3 VfB Stuttgart

What a comeback for the home side. After going 0-3 down to a Stuttgart side who have completely turned themselves around, Kaiserslautern pulled themselves together and managed to nick a point, and in all honesty could have won the match. Boka, Cacau and Gentner thought they had put Kaiserslautern to the sword after 50 minutes, but the home side were having none of that. Kaiserslautern made their substitutions count as Ilijan Micanski and Ivo Ilicevic both scored to put the home side back in it, before Mathias Abel netted the equalizer. Fantastic stuff from a side who have been very poor recently. Hopefully they keep it up and survive.

St. Pauli 0 – 1 Bayer Leverkusen

The three points is what they came looking for, and the three points is what they went home with. This result puts Leverkusen into second position, tied on points with a stuttering Mainz side. Renato Augusto won it for the visitors on 81 minutes, but it could have been so many more if not for Thomas Kessler between the sticks for the hosts.

VfL Wolfsburg 2 – 2 Schalke 04

Wolfsburg have let a lead slip for the third time this season, although maybe undeservedly this time around. Grafite and Edin Dzeko put Wolfsburg two-nil up, only for Edu to put Schalke back into it before the half-time whistle. Controversially, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored a late equalizer, but it looked like it could have been ruled out for handball. Huntelaar controlled the ball  with his foot, only for the ball to bounce up and hit his arm before he slotted it into the net. For me, that’s not a handball. The speed at which all that happened, and the bounce off his foot, rule it out. It’s not like he controlled it with his hand and then scored. I think the ref made the right call there!

Werder Bremen 0 – 0 Eintracht Frankfurt

Blughh. I was so hoping Frankfurt would smash this incredibly annoying Werder Bremen side. They’re completely rubbish, it’s laughable. Both sides had chances, and both sides spurned them. Of course, Frankfurt won’t mind too much, because they’re sitting pretty in fourth place and an away point is nothing to be ashamed of. Werder Bremen, on the other hand, should be pretty ashamed that they’ve let it all go to waste like this. It’s not like they haven’t got an extremely competent squad!

Mainz 0 – 1 Hannover 96

Poor Mainz! That cinderella story looks like it’s definitely been shelved for now. If they can strengthen in January, they still might be able to push for a European place because of all of the points they picked up early in the season. Still, Thomas Tuchel has to put his thinking cap on ( a la Jurgen Klopp) and turn this disappointing form around. A Sergio Pinto wonder-goal was the difference between the sides on the night.