Dortmund close in on title after beating Bayern 1-0

 　　BERLIN, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion Borussia Dortmund made a big stride towards the title of this season's Bundesliga with an effective 1-0 win over its main rival Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

　　Robert Lewandowski scored in the 77th minute and goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller saved a penalty from Arjen Robben to leave Dortmund six points clear of Bayern with four games remaining.

　　"Dortmund are 99 percent certain to be champions," acknowledged Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge after the match.

　　More than 450,000 fans applied¹ for tickets for Dortmund's likely title decider with Bayern, which had been billed by German media as "the game of games."

　　Weidenfeller missed the ball and brought Robben down in the penalty area in the 85th, giving the chance to level the match for the visiting team, but the Dortmund goalkeeper guessed the right way to deny the Dutchman a minute later.

　　"I think in the last three years I've taken 10 or 11 penalties and converted them all," Robben said. "That's the first I missed, and at such a time. It's bitter."

　　Elsewhere, third-place Schalke was unable to take advantage of Bayern's loss by slumping² to a 4-1 defeat at Nuremberg, Hoffenheim routed Hamburger SV 4-0, Hannover beat Wolfsburg 2-0 in a battle to qualify for Europe, and bottom side Kaiserslautern is almost certainly relegated³ after losing 3-1 at Bayer Leverkusen.

1 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

2 slumping   

大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的现在分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下]

参考例句：

• Hong Kong's slumping economy also caused a rise in bankruptcy applications. 香港经济低迷，破产申请个案随之上升。
• And as with slumping, over-arching can also be a simple postural habit. 就像弯腰驼背，过度挺直也可能只是一种习惯性姿势。

3 relegated   

v.使降级( relegate的过去式和过去分词 )；使降职；转移；把…归类

参考例句：

• She was then relegated to the role of assistant. 随后她被降级做助手了。
• I think that should be relegated to the garbage can of history. 我认为应该把它扔进历史的垃圾箱。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》