Another successful round for the Bundesliga clubs, wrapping up the group stages.
Borussia Dortmund had an easy time beating Manchester City 1-0. The Neons rested several starters and still dominated the match against a stunningly crap City squad that puts in the worst ever performance of an EPL club in the league. Julian Schieber got the goal in front of a sold out Signal-Iduna (65,829, less than the usual 80,000, since the terrased Südtribune gets converted to seating to meet UEFA requirements)
Schalke split points with French champion Montpellier 1-1, and finish first in the their group. Not much to write about.
Bayern München was rather ho-hum, beating BATE Baryssau 4-1 to take a measure of revenge for their stunning earlier disgrace. A sold out Allianz (68,000, down from 71,000 for the Bundesliga) saw Bayern romp home easily, also winning the group.
So all 3 surviving Bundesliga clubs advance as Group stage winners. Let’s hope that we get some respectable performances in the knock-out rounds as well…
The English Press is freaking out that the Bundesliga ranking might overtake the EPL due to this years performances. Don’t think that will happen but great to see some humble pie being eaten.
Bundesliga is re-proving itself as the best European football league, even without having won any European trophy for a decade.
Ich liebe Bundesliga for life.
It doesn’t really matter whether BL is first, second or third in the ranking. The pain zone begins with being forth in the list.
PS are there any ‘negative rankings’ available (according to the club’s debts?) Schalke would probably be BL’s last.. and still ahead of PL’s top ten :-))))))))