BUNDESLIGA, Round 22

Well, the title is decided, and really the relegation also. The interesting races surround the European spots, which are still wide open. Obviously Bayern, but also Dortmund and Leverkusen look to have CL sewn up, however Frankfurt has a tenuous hold on the 4th spot. And both Euroliga positions are up for grabs, even 12th place Stuttgart might think it’s achieveable….

Bayern really had no problems in Wolfsburg, as they easily fended off the VW efforts to get back in the match. It was really only a question of time, and ex-WOlfie Mandzukic scored to give Bayern the lead. They left it late to decide the match, but in reality the leaders were coasting and never really in trouble.

Dortmund bowed out from any hope of catching Bayern, but at least showed that they intend to run out the season and grab 2nd and a CL spot for next year. The Neons dominated against Frankfurt, despite the fact Julian Schieber got a double card and tossed out after 30 minutes. Marco Reus grabbed a hat-trick, and the Dortmund attack was clicking despite being down a man and a continual flu epidemic in Neon-land.

Leverkusen had some resistance from Augsburg, but their win was never really in question. In form Stefan Kiessling was enough to give the Aspirins the points and stop Augsburg’s mini-revival.

Mainz had the edge against Schalke, and missed several chances to get the deciding 3rd goal. Schalke played reasonably well in the first half, and has to be happy with new signing Michel Bastos, who seems like the only Blue that can score. They were somewhat fortunate, so should be happy with a point.

Wild match in Bremen, and Freiburg comes away with the deserved win. For SCF, it’s their first win against Werder in 12 tries. Bremen showed fight and came back on two occasions, but the Breisgauer had enough in their tank to grab the win.

HSV would be challenged against Gladbach, especially since top GK Rene Adler was out with injury. But Jaroslav Drobny filled in nicely, and Rafael van der Vaart grabbed the only score. Gladbach really didn’t do enough to get anything, and continue to drift aimlessly.

Fortuna Düsseldorf won a critical match against fellow promotee Greuther Fürth. Both teams wasted chances and looked like 2.Liga clubs at times, but Fortuna was better overall and deserves the win, which looks to ensure their survival. Looks pretty hopeless for the Greuther at this point.

Nürnberg showed great spirit in coming back against Hannover, getting a draw in injury time. The 96ers played well and looked to end their away drought, but overall FCN deserved a split.

Stuttgart pretty much put to rest any thoughts of relegation with a deserved win at Hoffenheim. The match was pretty crappy, but VfB did the minimum to win. The Hoppers look like they’ve given up. Their only option now is to hold on to 16th and try and win the playoff against the 2.Liga contender (likely to be Kaiserslautern). In any case, it seems fan interest is fading, as they couldn’t even sell out for essentially a regional derby.

 	
VfL Wolfsburg	     -   Bayern München	        0:2 (0:1)   30,000 *

                    0:1  Mandzukic (36., Schweinsteiger)
                    0:2  Robben (90. + 2, T. Müller)
 
Bayer 04 Leverkusen  -   FC Augsburg	        2:1 (1:0)   22,784

                    1:0  Kießling (26., Castro)
                    2:0  L. Bender (75., Kießling)
                    2:1  Mölders (89., Hahn)

Werder Bremen	     -   SC Freiburg	        2:3 (1:1)   38,498

                    0:1  M. Kruse (36., Linksschuss, Rosenthal)
                    1:1  Petersen (39., Linksschuss, de Bruyne)
                    1:2  D. Caligiuri (55., penalty)
                    2:2  Petersen (64.)
                    2:3  Ginter (70.)

1. FSV Mainz 05	     -   FC Schalke 04	        2:2 (1:1)   34,000 *

                    1:0  Ivanschitz (27., N. Müller)
                    1:1  Michel Bastos (41., L Raffael)
                    2:1  Pospech (63., Ivanschitz)
                    2:2  Michel Bastos (82., Meyer)

Hamburger SV	     -   Borussia M'gladbach	1:0 (1:0)   54,588

                    1:0  van der Vaart (24., Rudnevs)

Fortuna Düsseldorf   -   SpVgg Greuther Fürth	1:0 (1:0)   37,378

                    1:0  Bellinghausen (18., Giefer)

Borussia Dortmund    -   Eintracht Frankfurt	3:0 (2:0)   80,500

                    1:0  Reus (8., M. Götze)
                    2:0  Reus (10., Hummels)
                    3:0  Reus (65., M. Götze)

Sunday:

1. FC Nürnberg	     -   Hannover 96            2:2 (0:1)   36,101

                    0:1  Huszti (41., da Silva Pinto)
                    1:1  Klose (53., Kiyotake)
                    1:2  Ya Konan (68., Abdellaoue)
                    2:2  Polter (90. + 2, Chandler)

1899 Hoffenheim	     -   VfB Stuttgart          0:1 (0:1)   28,750

                    0:1  Harnik (3., Kopfball, Traoré)



 1  Bayern München	  	22    18   3   1      57:7   +50    57 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	22    12   6   4      50:26  +24    42 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	22    12   5   5      43:30  +13    41
 4  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	22    11   4   7      38:34  +4     37
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 5  SC Freiburg	  	        22     9   7   6      29:22  +7     34 
 6  Hamburger SV	  	22    10   4   8      27:27   0     34
----------------------------------------------------------------------
 7  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	22     9   5   8      30:27  +3     32 
 8  Hannover 96	  	        22     9   3   10     41:41   0     30 
 9  FC Schalke 04	  	22     8   6   8      35:37  -2     30 
10  Borussia M'gladbach	  	22     7   9   6      31:33  -2     30 
11  Werder Bremen	  	22     8   4   10     38:41  -3     28 
12  VfB Stuttgart	  	22     8   4   10     24:39  -15    28
13  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	22     7   6   9      27:29  -2     27 
14  1. FC Nürnberg	  	22     6   8   8      22:29  -7     26 
15  VfL Wolfsburg	  	22     7   5   10     22:32  -10    26 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
16  1899 Hoffenheim	  	22     4   4   14     26:46  -20    16
----------------------------------------------------------------------
17  FC Augsburg	  	        22     2   9   11     18:35  -17    15 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	22     2   6   14     13:36  -23    12


M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokal, defending Cup winner
N = Neuling, newly promoted


1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga

2 thoughts on “BUNDESLIGA, Round 22

  1. Now, this is the season and that’s the mentality that will set Borussia Dortmund en route to glory in coming years. Getting a draw away to tricky Shakhtar mid-week and winning against the impressive 4th placed team with 10 men! And yeah, Marco Reus has finally come home! Great going, BVB!!

    Good match by Freiburg.

    Impressive Bundesliga debut by 17 year old Maximillian Meyer for Schalke!

    Wir sind Der Club ~

  2. Still mathematically possible, but unlikely that Dortmund could catch up from here. Bayern would need to drop matches against Leverkusen (R.26), HSV (R.27), Eintracht (R.28) and Dortmund (R.32). They lost points againts Nuernberg too, but that’s unlikely to be repeated especially after the last match. Plus they have to concede a shit load of goals, which after conceding only 7 after 22 rounds is very unlikely. Oh well there’s always next year!

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