Bundesliga Column - Round 26: Dortmund & Bayern Munich march on

Round 26 of the 2011/12 Bundesliga season saw wins for the top four teams and many of the teams in the bottom half of the table gained valuable pointswith the relegation battle being expanded to teams, who had thought that they were already out of trouble and save. The big loser of the weekend where Hertha BSC Berlin and their veteran coach Otto Rehhagel, who now find themselves in the relegation zone.

Borussia Dortmund returned to winning ways after last weeks goalless draw against FC Augsburg with a 1-0 win against Werder Bremen. Dortmund could have won by a bigger margin against a young Bremen side, but their finishing wasn't as sharp as in recent weeks. The yellow-blacks now are on a 20 match unbeaten run, a new all-time club record. The golden goal was scored by Japanese birthday boy Shinji Kagawa as early as the eighth minute.

But Bayern Munich stay in the title race with their first away win in 2012, an emphatic 6-0 against relegation threatened Hertha BSC Berlin. Bayern continued where they had left off against Hoffenheim and Basel having scored seven goals in both these matches. Within 19 minutes Bayern were 3-0 ahead, the victory sealed and thereafter it seemed a race against time to score seven goals in the third match in a row. It ended with six, but after this crucial away win and that once more in such fashion Dortmund now know that the Bavarians will try and snatch the title from them.

Third-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach returned to winning ways with a late winner from Igor de Camargo two minutes from time in a 2-1 away win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who themselves are now on a three match losing streak. For Gladbach the win was vital as they now have a 11 point led over fifth-placed Leverkusen in the race for the Champions league places. A loss would have closed the gap to only five points, which now means for Leverkusen to play again in next seasons Champions League looks very unlikely.

While in Kaiserslautern the lights seem to be going off after their 1-4 defeat against Schalke on Sunday and Hertha BSC dropping to 17th following their trashing by Bayern Munich, FC Augsburg and SC Freiburg continued their recent good run with further victories, while FC Cologne and Hamburger SV with losses moved closer to the drop zone.

Round 26 Results

1899 Hoffenheim 1-2 VfB Stuttgart
1.FC Nürnberg 1-3 VfL Wolfsburg
FC Augsburg 2-1 1.FSV Mainz 05
Hamburger SV 1-3 SC Freiburg
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1-2 Borussia Mönchengladbach
Borussia Dortmund 1-0 SV Werder Bremen
Hertha BSC Berlin 0-6 FC Bayern München
1.FC Kaiserslautern 1-4 FC Schalke 04
Hannover 96 4-1 1.FC Köln