BUNDESLIGA, Round 32

(More details to follow on Sunday’s matches)

Things tightening up at the bottom, with several desperate clubs.

The marquee match was of course Dortmund and Bayern, but it lost some of it’s luster due to the fact that neither side wanted to show their full hand for the upcoming Champions League final. As a result both squads were not at full strength, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t a tense match. Under normal circumstances, you’d expect the Neons to go all out to bring the arrogant Bavarians down a notch – despite the fact that the title is long gone. In the opening seconds, “Kuba” Blaszczykowski got a yellow card. Kevin Großkreutz scored early, but was pegged back by Mario Gomez. The “highlight” of the match was probably Manuel Neuer stopping Robert Lewandowski’s penalty kick. So nothing ventured, nothing gained, the two giants will fight it out in Wembley for all the marbles.

Solid away win for Leverkusen at Nürnberg. The Aspirins were really in control the whole match, and they assure Champions League for next season. I’d say that’s merited, as bayer has been pretty consistent this season, and generally played attractive football. FCN disappointed, never really got going in this match.

Schalke has the inside track on the last Champions LEague opportunity, as they came up with an away win at Gladbach. A solid performance overall, but looked to be heading for a draw until Julian Draxler put in the winner. Draxler is bound to be the next hot property of young German players, sort of a Schalke version of Mario Götze. (Let’s hope he doesn’t sign for Bayern).

Mainz and Hannover are fading in the qualification race for Europe, and neither side benefited from this draw. That said, both clubs went out for the needed win, and the fans saw an entertaining match. A split of points is a fair result, but is probably leaving both outside the Euro prizes.

Frankfurt continues to defend their Euro hopes, and the return of Alex Meier was a welcome event. Of course more welcome was the fact that they were hosting Fortuna Düsseldorf, who have been sliding unstoppably towards the 2.Liga. Eintracht dominated the early goings, and although Fortuna showed some life in the 2nd half, Meier’s double was decisive in giving Frankfurt the points. Düsseldorf remains in free-fall, and could be facing a playoff to stay up – or even worse.

Bremen seemed to be getting the critical win needed to end any relegation worries, but they were rudely slapped in the face by desperate Hoffenheim. After an early dubious penalty, Werder followed up with another quick goal, and were dominating and cruising to a win. But they started dicking around and sure enough the Hoppers launched a desperate late run and squared the match, stunning the crowd. Lucky points for Hoffenheim, and Werder’s Thomas Schaaf must be pulling his hair out. Well, he doesn’t have any, but you get the idea.

You have to admire Greuther Fürth, relegated and basically sucky, but they’re still trying. And they ended up biatch-slapping one of the more underachieving sides in the Bundesliga, on the road no less. In fact, the Stuttgarters dominated the match, but they couldn’t be bothered to score a goal. Well, that’s not true, they kicked one into their own net, and the Greuther defended resolutely and were rewarded with a nice away win.

Augsburg had a chance to pass Düsseldorf with a result at Freiburg. SCF has been shaking and needed the points to strengthen their Euro position. The result was a hard fought battle. FCA was giving a strong performance, but lack of talent began to show through, as they couldn’t do much with their chances. Freiburg was more clever and showed why they’re having a fine season as they took their opportunities to get the result. Augsburg still has a good chance to sink Düsseldorf (and both could catch sinking Bremen), but they need to keep an eye on revived Hoffenheim as well.

Hamburg and Wolfsburg split teh points in a Nord-derby. Doesn’t really help either side, but neither is really going anywhere either, so I guess it doesn’t really matter. Should almost put to bed any hopes HSV had of some additional euros from Euro…

Total attendance was 437,769 (avg 48,641), sellouts in Gladbach, Bremen, Dortmund and Freiburg. This is probably the highest of the season.

 	
Borussia M'gladbach    -     FC Schalke 04	    0:1 (0:0)   54,010 *

                      0:1  Draxler (82., Raffael)

VfB Stuttgart	       -     SpVgg Greuther Fürth   0:2 (0:0)   48,300

                      0:1  G. Sakai (51., own goal, Prib)
                      0:2  Azemi (89., Prib)

Hannover 96	       -     1. FSV Mainz 05	    2:2 (1:1)   47,000

                      0:1  N. Müller (25.)
                      1:1  Sobiech (36., Schlaudraff)
                      2:1  M. Diouf (70., Sobiech)
                      2:2  N. Müller (79., S. Parker)

Werder Bremen	       -     1899 Hoffenheim	    2:2 (2:0)   42,100 *

                      1:0  Hunt (2., penalty, Hunt)
                      2:0  de Bruyne (24., Petersen)
                      2:1  Schipplock (85., Salihovic)
                      2:2  Schipplock (90. + 1, Ludwig)

1. FC Nürnberg	       -     Bayer 04 Leverkusen    0:2 (0:1)   40,581

                      0:1  Toprak (26., Castro)
                      0:2  Kießling (62., penalty)

Eintracht Frankfurt    -     Fortuna Düsseldorf	    3:1 (1:0)   51,000
 
                      1:0  Meier (30., Lakic)
                      2:0  Lakic (50., Inui)
                      2:1  Schahin (78.)
                      3:1  Meier (87.)
 	
Borussia Dortmund      -     Bayern München	    1:1 (1:1)   80,645 *

                      1:0  Großkreutz (11., Blaszczykowski)
                      1:1  Gomez (23., Rafinha)


Sunday:
SC Freiburg	       -     FC Augsburg	    2:0 (1:0)   24,000 *

                      1:0  Makiadi (30., Schmid)
                      2:0  Schmid (61., M. Kruse)

Hamburger SV	       -     VfL Wolfsburg          1:1 (1:0)   50,153

                      1:0  Westermann (45., van der Vaart)
                      1:1  Hasebe (65., Perisic)



 1  Bayern München	  	32    27   4   1    91:15  +76 	   85 
 2  Borussia Dortmund (M, P)	32    19   8   5    77:37  +40 	   65 
 3  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	32    17   8   7    61:38  +23 	   59
 4  FC Schalke 04	  	32    15   7  10    55:47  +8 	   52
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 5  Eintracht Frankfurt (N)	32    14   7  11    46:43  +3 	   49 
 6  SC Freiburg	  	        32    13   9  10    42:37  +5 	   48
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 7  Hamburger SV	  	32    13   6  13    38:51  -13 	   45 
 8  Borussia M'gladbach	  	32    11  11  10    38:43  -5 	   44 
 9  Hannover 96	  	        32    12   6  14    56:59  -3 	   42 
10  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	32    10  11  11    38:38   0 	   41 
11  VfL Wolfsburg	  	32    10  11  11    42:47  -5 	   41 
12  VfB Stuttgart	  	32    11   6  15    33:52  -19 	   39 
13  1. FC Nürnberg	  	32     9  11  12    34:44  -10 	   38 
14  Werder Bremen	  	32     8   9  15    47:62  -15 	   33 
15  Fortuna Düsseldorf (N)	32     7   9  16    38:52  -14 	   30
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16  FC Augsburg	  	        32     7   9  16    30:47  -17 	   30
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17  1899 Hoffenheim	  	32     7   7  18    39:62  -23 	   28 
18  SpVgg Greuther Fürth (N)	32     4   9  19    24:55  -31 	   21


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

3 thoughts on “BUNDESLIGA, Round 32

  1. Part of me wants Augsburg to stay up (underdog fight type thing), part of me wants Duesseldorf to stay up just in case trhe Robbie Cruse deal doesn’t come off. None of me wants Hoffenheim to stay up as their story needs to come to a logical conclusion..

  2. I would prefer Düsseldorf to stay up out of the two, but Hoffenheim need to go down I think!

    Would be interesting to see what would happen if both Düsseldorf and Augsburg overtook Bremen….

  3. That would be a shame. Werder are traditionally a strong club that plays regularly in Europe. According to latest rankings they are ranked the 32nd strongest club in all of Europe. The Bundesliga needs these clubs to stay up and to compete in Europe to continue its push for higher rankings compared to EPL and La Liga.

    Having said that, if they don’t play well enough over the course of the season, they get what they deserve!

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