German side VFB Stuttgart have appointed former Bayern Munich and Liverpool defender Markus Babbel as their new manager after parting ways with Armin Veh. Veh and his assistant Alfons Higl were shown the door after Stuttgart were soundly beaten 4-1 by Felix Magaath’s Wolfsburg on Saturday. Stuttgart lie in the bottom half of the Bundesliga table, and are currently thirteen points behind league leaders TSG Hoffenheim.
German Bundesliga
Schalke 3-1 Borussia Monchengladbach
Two first half goals from Halil Altintop allowed Schalke to beat neighbours Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 at the Veltins Arena on Saturday. The win ends Schalke’s two game losing streak and comes at an important time, just before their European clash against Manchester City on Thursday.
Altintop opened the scoring in the seventeenth minute, sending a right footed shot into the bottom left corner of Gladbach keeper Uwe Gospodarek. Five minutes later, Tobias Levels fouled Jefferson Farfan in the box, and the Peruvian international duly converted the resulting penalty to put the Royal Blues 2-0 ahead. Rob Friend reduced the margin for Gladbach on 30 minutes, but Altintop added one more on the stroke of half time to put Schalke into a comfortable 3-1 lead.
Gladbach had drawn with Bayern Munich last week.
Werder Bremen 5-1 Hertha Berlin BSC
Werder Bremen scored five goals for the third time in the Bundesliga this season when they crushed Hertha Berlin BSC 5-1 at the Weser Stadion on Saturday. Claudio Pizarro and Diego Ribas da Cunha both marked their return from injury with three goals together as Bremen won for the first time in seven games in all competitions. Bremen’s last win was the 5-4 thriller against Hoffenheim after which they lost to Stuttgart and Leverkusen and drew four other games, including two European clashes against Inter and Panathinaikos.