BERLIN — Tennis balls rained on the Bundesliga on Saturday as Bayer Leverkusen consolidated top spot by beating Heidenheim 2-1.
Jeremie Frimpong and Amine Adli scored for Xabi Alonso’s team to move eight points clear of Bayern Munich before the defending champion’s match at Bochum on Sunday.
But none of Saturday’s games escaped fans’ wrath with the German soccer league for its controversial plan to sell a stake in the Bundesliga’s media rights income to an outside investor.
Supporters threw tennis balls onto the field across four of the afternoon’s five games, forcing interruptions and delays. The first half of Stuttgart’s game at Darmstadt took 70 minutes to complete instead of the usual 45 plus stoppage time.
In Heidenheim, both sets of fans used whistles to drown out the referee’s whistle on the field, while displaying giant banners decrying the soccer league’s planned new investor deal.
In the second division earlier, two remote-controlled vehicles carrying smoke bombs caused a brief delay to Hamburger SV’s game at Rostock, which was delayed again later when tennis balls were thrown on the field.
PHOTOS: Tennis balls disrupt Bundesliga as Bayer Leverkusen moves 8 points clear at top
The protests follow similar actions during Friday’s match and continue the disruptions that also plagued last weekend’s games.
DORTMUND DENIED
Borussia Dortmund was held by Wolfsburg to 1-1 for a result that suited neither team.
The visitors went ahead early when Koen Casteel’s effort to clear Marco Reus’ cross rebounded in off Niclas Füllkrug’s shin.
Wolfsburg substitute Yannick Gerhardt equalized in the 64th to earn them a point, though it might not be enough for coach Niko Kovač to keep his job.
Dortmund remained fourth but Leipzig could close the four-point gap later against visiting Borussia Mönchengladbach.
Dortmund was without Sébastien Haller, who was given a hero’s reception on Thursday upon his return from helping Ivory Coast win the Africa Cup of Nations. The club said on Friday that Haller returned with a re-occurrence of the ankle injury that kept him out of Ivory Coast’s opening games and he will remain out for “several weeks.”
AARONSON GRABS UNION WINNER
American midfielder Brenden Aaronson scored his first Bundesliga goal to fire Union Berlin to a 1-0 win at Hoffenheim that lifted the capital club to 12th and eight points above the relegation zone.
Yorbe Vertessen set up fellow substitute Aaronson in the 84th.
The match was plagued by lengthy delays. Any time referee Robert Hartmann tried resuming the match, the tennis ball-throwing resumed, too. Some 12 minutes of stoppage time was added to the first half when the game resumed again – enough for both teams to have a player sent off.
GUIRRASSY RESUMES SCORING
Stuttgart forward Serhou Guirassy scored in his first start since helping Guinea reach the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup. His 18th goal in 16 Bundesliga appearances for Stuttgart helped the team consolidate third place with a bad-tempered 2-1 win at Darmstadt.
Also, struggling Mainz defeated Augsburg 1-0 in coach Bo Henriksen ’s debut. Henriksen is Mainz’s third coach of the season and the second Bo, after it started with Danish compatriot Bo Svensson.
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