Barrios double sinks Wolfsburg as Lehmann sees red

A first-half double from Borussia Dortmund’s Argentine striker Lucas Barrios compounded the misery of reigning Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg by consigning them to a 3-1 home loss on Sunday.

Wolfsburg, eliminated from the Champions League by Manchester United this week, were over-run by Dortmund, who were 2-0 ahead within just ten minutes after Barrios got on the scoresheet with two quickfire goals.

German international right-back Patrick Owomoyela scored a third after 36 minutes before Brazilian striker Grafite got one back for the hosts after 55 minutes.

Unbeaten at home last season, Wolfsburg have already conceded four losses in front of their public since August. They are now in ninth place, nine points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen.

Dortmund move up to sixth, five points behind the leaders after 16 games.

Meanwhile, new VfB Stuttgart coach Christian Gross’ first league game in charge since replacing Markus Babbel ended in a disappointing 1-1 draw after goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was given his marching orders at the end of the match.

Russian striker Pavel Pogrebnyak had given Stuttgart the lead on 11 minutes and the visitors had looked on the way to their first Bundesliga win since September 26.

But Lehmann was shown a red card in the 87th minute after he responded to taunts from Mainz’s striker Aristide Bance by shouldering the Burkina Faso player and standing on his left foot.

Eugen Polanski stepped up with the equaliser from the spot, leaving Stuttgart in 15th position with 13 points.

The red card comes at the end of a particularly difficult week for Stuttgart and Lehmann, who was fined for criticising his club’s decision to fire Babbel.

Stuttgart, who beat Unirea Urziceni during the week to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League, have struggled domestically and their winless run in the Bundesliga now stands at nine games.

Bayern Munich and Schalke moved firmly into the German title race on Saturday with impressive away victories.

Bayern produced a 5-1 romp at struggling Bochum while Schalke won 2-0 at fellow title hopefuls Werder Bremen to edge the Bavarians into third spot.

Bayern’s win, coming hot on the heels of a four-goal Champions League success at Juventus, gave them 30 points from 16 games, two adrift of Leverkusen, who just preserved their unbeaten league record this season with a 2-2 draw on Friday at tailenders Hertha Berlin.

With a week to go until the winter break Louis van Gaal’s men are finally firing on all cylinders just six weeks after they languished in eighth place, eight points off the summit.