{"id":410501,"date":"2011-04-30T17:31:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-30T17:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/30\/koln-2-0-leverkusen-novakovic-brace-ends-bayers-title-hopes\/"},"modified":"2011-04-30T17:31:24","modified_gmt":"2011-04-30T17:31:24","slug":"koln-2-0-leverkusen-novakovic-brace-ends-bayers-title-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/30\/koln-2-0-leverkusen-novakovic-brace-ends-bayers-title-hopes\/","title":{"rendered":"Koln 2-0 Leverkusen: Novakovic brace ends Bayer’s title hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A double strike from Milivoje Novakovic ended Bayer Leverkusen’s title hopes once and for all as bitter rivals Koln recorded a crucial 2-0 win in Volker Finke’s first game in charge.<\/p>\n

The victory gives the Billy Goats much needed breathing space in the relegation battle and helps confirm Borussia Dortmund as German champions after it defeated Nurnberg.<\/p>\n

The all important goal for Koln came in the 67th minute. Miso Brecko, with the aid of a slight deflection, picked out the run of Novakovic in behind the Leverkusen defense. The Slovenian striker kept his cool against Rene Adler to lift the ball over the advancing Leverkusen goalkeeper and high into the net, to spark jubilant celebrations in both Koln and Dortmund. It was his fifteenth, and most important goal, of the campaign.<\/p>\n

If the reaction was fervent after the first goal, the stadium erupted when Novakovic doubled the home side’s lead to crush Leverkusen. Petit’s free-kick was beaten away by Adler, who should have done better, into the path of Novakovic, who reacted the quickest to bundle the ball into the net.<\/p>\n

After a quiet start, Petit and Novakovic combined on 13 minutes to rob Sami Hyypia. Lukas Podolski then took up the baton but his far post cross from the left evaded the sliding Novakovic. Leverkusen’s best chance of an otherwise uneventful opening 45 minutes came through Gonzalo Castro who volleyed wide after superbly controlling Michael Ballack’s ball forward.<\/p>\n

The visitors came close on 51 minutes. Renato Augusto threaded a terrific ball through to Stefan Kiessling, who struck the crossbar with Michael Rensing beaten. Soon after, Miso Brecko broke down the right but once more Novakovic was unable to make contact with the low cross into the danger area.<\/p>\n

Michael Rensing has been an excellent acquisition for the hosts and he came good again on 63 minutes. Michal Kadlec’s cross was nodded on by Kiessling into the path of Ballack inside the six-yard box. A goal looked certain but Rensing produced a superb reflex save to deny the veteran, to the delight of the home fans for whom Ballack is hardly a favorite.<\/p>\n

Leverkusen was frustrated in its quest for an equalizer as nothing went the way of Jupp Heynckes’ men. Not even Rensing could get a hand to Renato Augusto’s fizzing 76th minute shot, which struck the post and rolled along the line before Pedro Geromel’s clearance. The visitors had the stuffing knocked out of them after Koln’s second and though Kadlec went close, it just was not Bayer Leverkusen’s day.<\/p>\n

Eight points behind Dortmund with two games to play, a forlorn Leverkusen hosts Hamburg next week while Koln, which is still not assured of safety, face a relegation six-pointer in the Commerzbank Arena against Christoph Daum’s Eintracht Frankfurt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Read more:
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A double strike from Milivoje Novakovic ended Bayer Leverkusen’s title hopes once and for all as bitter rivals Koln recorded a crucial 2-0 win in Volker Finke’s first game in charge. The victory gives the Billy Goats much needed breathing space in the relegation battle and helps confirm Borussia Dortmund as German champions after it defeated Nurnberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nKoln 2-0 Leverkusen: Novakovic brace ends Bayer's title hopes - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/30\/koln-2-0-leverkusen-novakovic-brace-ends-bayers-title-hopes\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Koln 2-0 Leverkusen: Novakovic brace ends Bayer's title hopes - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"A double strike from Milivoje Novakovic ended Bayer Leverkusen's title hopes once and for all as bitter rivals Koln recorded a crucial 2-0 win in Volker Finke's first game in charge. 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