Bundesliga wrap: Bayern extend gap at the top, Leverkusen second

Bayern Munich extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to 10 points with a comfortable 2-0 win over Freiburg on Wednesday.

A Thomas Mueller penalty gave the visitors an early lead at the Mage Solar Stadion, and although the hosts were soon reduced to 10 men, Jupp Heynckes’ side failed to add to their lead until the last 10 minutes, when Anatoliy Tymoshchuk capped the victory.

Freiburg registered the first shot of the match, with Julian Schuster finding space and curling a shot into Manuel Neuer’s palms.

Bayern won a penalty when the ball was spread by Franck Ribery on the left-hand side of the box.

The Frenchman played it against Oliver Sorg’s arm, and the referee flagged for a penalty, which Mueller duly converted on 10 minutes.

Two minutes later, things got a whole lot worse for the hosts when Fallou Diagne pulled down Xherdan Shaqiri just outside the box and received a straight red card.

Despite their numerical advantage, Bayern were not able to keep up their wave of attacks and did little with a majority of possession.

The win was finally wrapped up when Tymoshchuk sprung the offside trap to latch on to Phillip Lahm’s ball and rounded the keeper to slot it into the empty net 11 minutes from time.

Meanwhile, Gonzalo Castro scored a brace as Bayer Leverkusen beat Werder Bremen 4-1 to lift them into second place ahead of Borussia Dortmund.

Strikes from Simon Rolfes and Jens Hegler in the second half wrapped up a third straight win for Leverkusen after Nils Petersen had made it 2-1 for the home side.

Vedad Ibisevic scored late in the second half to seal a 2-1 win for Stuttgart over Augsburg while Nuremberg heaped more pressure on relegation-threatened Hoffenheim with a 4-2 win.

Borussia Moenchengladbach scored twice in the first half to see off struggling Wolfsburg 2-0.