Bayern München wrapped another title, clinching in record time: 6 games to spare. Not really surprising, as they went to town this season and dominated. Jupp Heynckes fielded a full strength squad (except Ribery) at Frankfurt, and the Eintracht countered with a defensive unit, as some of their keys like Alex Meier were out. Bayern dominated, missed chances (Alaba missing penalty), but eventually took the lead. At that point, Frankfurt came out of their shell and pressed, GK Manuel Neuer came up with some good saves to preserve the win and clinching the title.
Dortmund maintains their 2nd spot, despite resting 7 players from the starting lineup that played at Malaga in the Champions League. However a desperate Augsburg squad gave everything, so some of the starters came off the bench to make sure that the Neons got all the points. It wasn’t easy, but eventually they beat down their opposition.
Leverkusen dominated Wolfsburg, the Aspirins peppering GK Benaglio’s goal. But the Swiss international was sharp and stopped just about everything, and the VWs ended up stealing a point after some cleverness from Diego. The Brazilian isn’t what he was with Bremen, but after dumping Magath, the Wolfies are getting what they paid for, a very good playmaker.
A solid performance and Schalke gets the points in Bremen. Not too long ago the Blues were in crisis, but they’ve been getting results and are pushing for Champions League. Julian Draxler is already making folks forget Lewis Holtby. The german press is making a lot of noise about Werder’s crisis, but aside from the fact that their squad basically sucks, I don’t really see much of a problem. It’s hard to blame it all on Thomas Schaaf, since Werder cleaned house to save money in the offseason. And this talk about Bremen maybe going down? More drivel. They’ve got 7 points on the relegation playoff spot, and if they can’t hold that, then they deserve to go down.
Gladbach played poorly against Greuther Fürth but still came up with a win. The Greuthers gave a good effort, but it was ruined when Zimmermann got his ass tossed for a second yellow. A few minutes later Gladbach scored the winner.
After their desolate “performance” at Bayern last week, the HSV fans expected something better. Ix-nay: Hamburg continues to suck. They ran around a lot against Freiburg, who were way to clever for them. When the Breisgauers grabbed the lead, HSV fell apart and was worthless. Good points for Freiburg, keeping them in Euro contention.
New manager Markus Gisdol starts off in style as Hopeless Hoffenheim thumps Fortuna Düsseldorf and gets back into the relegation battle. This really was a must-win, and the Hoppers showed some spirit in grabbing it. They still trail Augsburg, but they have a reasonable chance of catching them.
Nürnberg continues their improvement with another win, dealing a blow to Mainz’ Euro aspirations. With some lucky results, FCN could even dream of sneaking in. They’ve now gone 9 games without defeat, so interim coach Michael Wiesinger certainly is improving his chances for the permanent position.
Hannover and Stuttgart played a snoozer that helps neither team.
Total attendance: 415,597 (avg 46,177), sellouts in Frankfurt, Bremen
1899 Hoffenheim - Fortuna Düsseldorf 3:0 (1:0) 28,000 1:0 Roberto Firmino (11., Schipplock) 2:0 Lambertz (75., own goal, Salihovic) 3:0 Volland (90. + 4, Salihovic) Borussia Dortmund - FC Augsburg 4:2 (1:2) 80,400 1:0 Schieber (22., Bittencourt) 1:1 Baier (43.) 1:2 Vogt (45., Werner) 2:2 Schieber (52., Hofmann) 3:2 Subotic (64., M. Götze) 4:2 Lewandowski (90. + 2, M. Götze) Borussia M'gladbach - SpVgg Greuther Fürth 1:0 (0:0) 50,206 1:0 L. de Jong (74., Wendt) Bayer 04 Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (1:0) 29,288 1:0 Schürrle (12., L. Bender) 1:1 Kjaer (70., Rodriguez) Werder Bremen - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:0) 42,100 * 0:1 Draxler (51., Marica) 0:2 Marica (69., Raffael) Eintracht Frankfurt - Bayern München 0:1 (0:0) 51,500 * 0:1 Schweinsteiger (52., Lahm) Hamburger SV - SC Freiburg 0:1 (0:0) 53,021 0:1 Schmid (68., Mujdza) Sunday: 1. FC Nürnberg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (0:0) 35,082 1:0 Nilsson (54., Kiyotake) 1:1 N. Müller (60., Kirchhoff) 2:1 Nilsson (69., Balitsch) Hannover 96 - VfB Stuttgart 0:0 (0:0) 46,000 1 Bayern München 28 24 3 1 79:13 +66 75 2 Borussia Dortmund (M, P) 28 16 7 5 66:34 +32 55 3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 28 14 7 7 51:36 +15 49 4 FC Schalke 04 28 13 6 9 48:43 +5 45 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 SC Freiburg 28 11 9 8 36:33 +3 42 6 Eintracht Frankfurt (N) 28 12 6 10 42:40 +2 42 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Borussia M'gladbach 28 10 11 7 36:37 -1 41 8 1. FSV Mainz 05 28 10 9 9 35:32 +3 39 9 Hannover 96 28 11 5 12 49:46 +3 38 10 1. FC Nürnberg 28 9 11 8 33:35 -2 38 11 Hamburger SV 28 11 5 12 32:44 -12 38 12 VfL Wolfsburg 28 8 9 11 33:43 -10 33 13 VfB Stuttgart 28 9 6 13 29:46 -17 33 14 Werder Bremen 28 8 7 13 43:54 -11 31 15 Fortuna Düsseldorf (N) 28 7 8 13 33:43 -10 29 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 FC Augsburg 28 5 9 14 25:44 -19 24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 1899 Hoffenheim 28 6 5 17 33:52 -19 23 18 SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N) 28 2 9 17 18:46 -28 15 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
Not sure if I want to see an all German all Spanish semi final so that at least one German team is playing in the final or get the Ger/ Esp semi and hope for an all German final. Find out soon.