Nurnberg hands Leverkusen first loss

Soccer Betting Lines

03/07/2010 - Nurnberg, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting scored twice in the closing minutes of the first half, Mikael Tavares added a goal 10 minutes after the break, and Nurnberg held on to hand Bayer Leverkusen its first loss of the season, 3-2 on Sunday at Franken Stadion.

Choupo-Moting scored in the 42nd and 45th, and Tavares put Nurnberg in control before Stefan Kiessling scored his Bundesliga-leading 14th and Patrick Helmes added his first of the season.

Leverkusen couldn't finish the comeback, and wasted a chance to regain the top spot in the Bundesliga. Bayern Munich moved into first last week, but settled for a 1-1 draw against Koln on Saturday.

Bayer Leverkusen would have returned to the top with a victory but had its 24- game, season-long unbeaten streak snapped by relegation-threatened Nurnberg.

Nurnberg jumped Hannover and Freiburg to move out of the drop zone but is just one point ahead of those two, and six ahead of last-place Hertha Berlin.

Choupo-Moting sliced through Leverkusen central defenders Manuel Friedrich and Sami Hyypia to beat German goalie Rene Adler for the opener, then took a pass from Dennis Diekmeier three minutes later and finished to the top corner.

Tavares added Nurnberg's third in the 55th when he scored into the lower-right corner, and the struggling side appeared to be in complete control.

Kiessling got one back in the 66th when he turned a pass from Gonzalo Castro past Nurnberg goalkeeper Rafael Schafer, and Helmes took advantage of a poor clearance seven minutes later to convert a low shot.

Leverkusen continued to push for the equalizer but, just one week after losing the top spot, slipped to third in the league behind Bayern and Schalke.

Aristide Bance scored his team-high seventh goal as Mainz defeated Hoffenheim 1-0 Rhein-Neckar-Arena to move up to eighth. Mainz is level with seventh-place Stuttgart on points, and just seven points out of a Europe League berth.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.