BERLIN: Thomas Mueller came off the bench to score the winner and Sven Ulreich saved a penalty in injury time as Bayern Munich won 1-0 at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday to go 11 points clear in the Bundesliga.

Mueller put the visitors ahead with 11 minutes remaining and keeper Ulreich saved Chadrac Akolo’s spot-kick leaving Bayern in pole position to win a sixth straight league title heading into the winter break.

The win lifted Bayern to 41 points, with second-placed Schalke 04 rescuing a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Eintracht Frankfurt to move on to 30 as Naldo scored in the fifth minute of injury time to salvage a point.

Eintracht went ahead when Luka Jovic scored with just two minutes gone and then went 2-0 up 24 minutes from time when Sebastien Haller came on to drive in their second.

Breel Embolo pulled a goal back for Schalke before Naldo hammered home from a speculative long ball to delight travelling fans and keep his team second.

Christian Pulisic scored a brilliant late goal for Borussia Dortmund to come from behind and beat Hoffenheim 2-1 for their second straight victory under new coach Peter Stoeger.

Pulisic picked up a Shinji Kagawa cross and passed from one foot to the other, before volleying in the winner to lift his team back into third place on 28. Hoffenheim had taken the lead with Mark Uth but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s penalty in the 63rd minute had drawn Dortmund level.

Bottom club Cologne beat VfL Wolfsburg 1-0, celebrating their first win of the season, while lowly Werder Bremen squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 against relegation rivals Mainz 05 and Alfred Finnbogason scored twice in injury time as Augsburg drew 3-3 with Freiburg.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2017