Domestic Results 10/23/11.

I'd like to start in Germany with this post where Dortmund were very capable in their 5-0 steamrolling of Koln. Shinji Kagawa opened the scoring in the 7th minute with Marcel Schmelzer adding the 2nd in 25th. Just a minute before half time, Robert Lewandowski tacked on Dortmund's 3rd while he also scored their 4th in the 50th minute. The 5th, however, came from Sebastian Kehl in the 66th minute. Elsewhere, Hamburg and Wolfsburg tied 1-1 thanks to Mario Mandzukic's 2nd minute strike for the visitors and Mladen Petric's 56th minute equalizer for the hosts. Hertha Berlin and Mainz finished goalless in Berlin. An interesting match fact: there were 4 yellows handed out in the last 11 minutes of the game! 3 of these went to Mainz. Hoffenheim edged Monchengladbach in their match today thanks to a 56th minute strike from Vedad Ibisevic. Kasierslautern were also able to edge their guests, Freiburg, winning 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 75th minute from Itay Shechter. The last of the German games today was between Nurnberg and Stuttgart with the final score standing 2-2. Timmy Simons gave the hosts the lead in the 9th minute. This was not changed for the whole rest of the 1st half! However, in the 2nd half, things changed. Stuttgart were brought level through Zdravko Kuzmanovic's penalty in the 60th. Philipp Wollscheid gave Nurnberg the lead once more, in the 70th minute, but to no avail. Maza struck for Stuttgart in the 84th to split the points between the two sides. Down in Spain, Barcelona were denied anything by the superb goalkeeping of Sevilla's Javi Varas. Yes, the Catalan side allowed no goals into their own net, but that is just half the battle as the game finished 0-0! Real Madrid thus grabbed the top position of the table as they defeated their hosts Malaga 0-4. It was only done through Cristiano Ronaldo though. The Portuguese superstar struck in the 23rd, 28th, and 38th minutes to add on to Gonzalo Higuain's opener in the 11th minute. Racing were edged by their guests Espanyol who relied totally on Sergio Garcia's 59th minute shot. Finally, Sporting Gijon beat Granada 2-0 thanks to goals from David Barral (6th minute) and Andre Castro (42nd minute). Over in Portugal meanwhile, Beira-Mar were edged 0-1 by Benfica who scored through Oscar Cardozo in the 42nd. The second and final match in Portugal was between Olhanense and Vitoria. Here, the home side won thanks solely to a penalty in the 48th from Mateus. Onwards to England now where Aston Villa were edged by West Brom despite taking the lead through Darren Bent in the 23rd. Villa's loss of a player after Chris Herd was sent-off in the 35th may be blamed for their dismal conclusion though.Sunderland beat Bolton 0-2 while Liverpool and Norwich tied 1-1. Newcastle edged Wigan 1-0 while Wolves and Swansea  tied 2-2. Wolves were lucky not to lose 0-2 though! They only scored their first goal in the 84th. 2 minutes later they had made it 2-2. In Italy things carried a similar flavor as both Fiorentina v.s. Catania and Juventus v.s Genoa drew 2-2. Hope you enjoyed!