Fin Bartels wins Matchday 11 Goal of the Week
Cologne - As ever, there were plenty of spectacular goals in Germany's top flight this weekend - Christoph Kramer, take a bow! - but it was SV Werder Bremen's who came out on top in bundesliga.com's Matchday 11 Goal of the Week vote.
Dramatic winner
Bartels' first-time strike from Zlatko Junuzovic's corner doubled die Grün-Weißen's lead against fellow strugglers VfB Stuttgart at the Weser-Stadion on Friday evening, cueing wild celebrations amongst the home supporters who saw their team record a first victory on home soil in 2014/15 and climb off the foot of the Bundesliga table in the process.
The 57th-minute strike earned Bartels 53 per cent of the vote. In second, on 26 per cent, was newly-crowned Player of the Week Pawel Olkowski. The 1. FC Köln star scored two cracking goals in the Billy Goats' 4-3 win at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, but the 24-year-old's second - which turned out to be the winning goal - was particularly memorable. The Poland international let fly from the edge of the box, leaving Oliver Baumann no chance in the Hoffenheim goal to clinch a thrilling victory.
FC Bayern München's hat-trick hero Thomas Müller received 13 per cent of the poll for his second goal in the Bavarians' 4-0 humbling of Eintracht Frankfurt. Philipp Lahm started the move, clipping a lovely ball over the top of the Eagles defence for Franck Ribery, who squared for the self-proclaimed Raumdeuter to net home from close range.
Briand takes a tumble
FC Schalke 04's poor away form came back to haunt them at the Schwarzwald-Stadion on Saturday, but the Royal Blues could do little about Jonathan Schmid's sensational strike in the 68th minute of the teams' encounter in the Black Forest (six per cent). Ralf Fährmann couldn't get anywhere near the 24-year-old's rocket into the top right-hand corner, which sealed a second successive league win for Christian Streich's side and condemned Schalke to a third straight away loss in the league.
Last but not least was Jimmy Briand's opening goal in Hannover 96's 2-0 win at Hertha Berlin. As good as the Frenchman's goal was - a first-time strike from Hiroshi Kiyotake's corner - the celebration that followed was just as entertaining and may ring a few bells for fans of FIFA 15!
Take another look at the standout strikes from Matchday 11 on the official Bundesliga YouTube channel:
Take another look at the standout strikes from Matchday 11 on the Bundesliga's official YouTube channel.
