Dortmund faced off against an Angstgegner, VfB Stuttgart, who have managed to draw the last four visits to the Westfalen-Stadion. And this visit the Stuttgarters jumped out to a quick lead, perhaps indicated it would be more of the same. However this time the Neons were in-synch, and launched a furious assault that eventually overwhelmed the visitors. Robert Lewandowski might be leaving on a free, but he’s continuing his business, netting a hat-trick. The end result is a shock, as already mentioned Stuttgart has given Dortmund a lot of trouble, but this time the Neons were on fire.
Bayern München had a hard time, but came away with a win at Hoffenheim. This allows them to tie Hamburg’s record of 36 Bundesliga matches without defeat. However, it wasn’t easy, as Hoffenheim made things quite difficult. It was another Manuel Neuerism that gave the Hoppers the lead, as he dropped a ball for an easy tap-in. For such a world-class keeper, Neuer probably makes more bone-head plays than any other. Still, in the end, Bayern was not to be denied, perhaps a little lucky to get the win, but they got the job done. Hoffenheim put up a good fight and continue in their rehabilitation.
Disaster for Leverkusen. Visiting tail-end Braunschweig, the Aspirins figured they could rest several starters, but despite dominating teh match, they were unable to punch home a goal. Eintracht defended tooth and nail, and then grabbed a somewhat lucky late goal to get a famous win. They’re still bottom, but this one is nice. The Aspirins out-clevered themselves and perhaps indicate that they really don’t beleive they can match Bayern and Dortmund, and thus will be satisifed with easy Champions League qualification.
Max Kruse took advantage of two Hamburg defensive lapses and grabbed a pair of goals to give Gladbach a good away win. Gladbach is strong at home, but usually sucks on the road, so any points are good points. HSV was shocked in the 1st half, but Van Marwijk got this side straightened out at half, and they were close to tying the match after sustained pressure. Lars Sobiech, who had gifted Kruse the first goal with a hospital pass, then repeated the action and sunk the Hamburgers. For Gladbach, they’re trying to establish themselves in that last Champions League spot, and this is a step in the right direction. HSV didn’t play badly, but poor Sobiech ends up the scapegoat.
Schalke has been dicking around lately, getting biatch-slapped both in Bundes and Champions liga. So it wouldn’t surprise anyone if the same didn’t happen to them in Berlin. Indeed, Hertha looked the more confident club, creating pressure, but Schalke held firm and used counters to their advantage. The result was a badly needed victory, hopefully getting them back on track. However the Blues are most likely to continue to dick around, so it’s more likely they’ll flounder around. Hertha will be disappointed that they end up with nothing. So far, they’ve played well in their return to the Bundesliga.
The relegation battle ended in a disaster for host Nürnberg, as they got owned at home by Freiburg. This was a battle of “non-victory” clubs, so one might have expected a drab scoreless draw. Actually, FCN generally dominated the match, but last week’s goat, SCF GK Oliver Baumann, was the hero, as he was in top form. Meanwhile, as der club got increasingly frustrated, the Breisgauer turned the match on it’s head with late goals. Nürnberg ended up hitting the post twice, and wasted several huge chances – and anything else Baumann stopped.
Wolfsburg has been quietly improving, and the VWs managed to get a win at Frankfurt, who are struggling at home. The visitors were perhaps slightly better for most of the match, as Eintracht struggled to get anything going. So on that account, a fair win for the VWs.
Augsburg got an important win, breaking their recent slump. Mainz was generally on the back foot for most of the match, although they were pressuring at the end as FCA was out of gas. Nevertheless, Augsburg deserves the win due to the fact it took Mainz too long to wake up.
A hard fought northern derby in Bremen saw Werder get a critical win against hannover to stop their slide. Both sides ran around a lot, neither exhibiting much technical prowess. Bremen seemed to want it a little more, so the victory isn’t undeserved.
Total attendance 409,603 (avg 45,511), sellouts in Dortmund, Hoffenheim and Hamburg
Borussia Dortmund - VfB Stuttgart 6:1 (2:1) 80,645 *
0:1 Haggui (13., Maxim)
1:1 Sokratis (19., Sahin)
2:1 Reus (22.)
3:1 Lewandowski (54., Reus)
4:1 Lewandowski (56., H. Mkhitaryan)
5:1 Lewandowski (72., Blaszczykowski)
6:1 Aubameyang (81., Lewandowski)
1. FC Nürnberg - SC Freiburg 0:3 (0:0) 37,069
0:1 Klaus (57., Freis)
0:2 Darida (79.)
0:3 Mehmedi (88.)
1899 Hoffenheim - Bayern München 1:2 (1:1) 30,150 *
1:0 Süle (34., Herdling)
1:1 Mandzukic (39., Ribery)
1:2 T. Müller (75., Ribery)
Hamburger SV - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:2 (0:1) 57,000 *
0:1 M. Kruse (23.)
0:2 M. Kruse (63., Raffael)
Eintr Braunschweig - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1:0 (0:0) 22,720
1:0 Kumbela (81., Theuerkauf)
Hertha BSC - FC Schalke 04 0:2 (0:1) 69,277
0:1 Szalai (26., Aogo)
0:2 Draxler (90. + 4, J. Jones)
Eintracht Frankfurt - VfL Wolfsburg 1:2 (1:1) 44,300
0:1 Anderson (2., own goal, Ochs)
1:1 Meier (35., direct freekick)
1:2 Arnold (82., Ochs)
FC Augsburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (1:0) 28,007
1:0 Hahn (27., Baier)
2:0 Hahn (49., To. Werner)
2:1 Choupo-Moting (59., penalty, Polter)
Werder Bremen - Hannover 96 3:2 (2:2) 40,435
0:1 Huszti (20., penalty, Huszti)
1:1 Hunt (25., penalty, Elia)
2:1 Makiadi (38., Junuzovic)
2:2 H. Sakai (41.)
3:2 Garcia (86., Hunt)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 11 9 2 0 24:7 +17 29
2 Borussia Dortmund 11 9 1 1 31:9 +22 28
3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 11 8 1 2 22:11 +11 25
4 Bor. Mönchengladbach 11 6 1 4 25:15 +10 19
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5 VfL Wolfsburg 11 6 0 5 16:13 +3 18
6 FC Schalke 04 11 5 2 4 20:22 -2 17
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7 Hertha BSC Berlin (N) 11 4 3 4 17:14 +3 15
8 Werder Bremen 11 4 3 4 12:17 -5 15
9 1899 Hoffenheim 11 3 4 4 26:25 +1 13
10 VfB Stuttgart 11 3 4 4 21:20 +1 13
11 Hannover 96 11 4 1 6 14:19 -5 13
12 1. FSV Mainz 05 11 4 1 6 16:23 -7 13
13 FC Augsburg 11 4 1 6 13:20 -7 13
14 Hamburger SV 11 3 3 5 23:24 -1 12
15 Eintracht Frankfurt 11 2 4 5 14:20 -6 10
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16 SC Freiburg 11 1 5 5 12:21 -9 8
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17 1. FC Nürnberg 11 0 7 4 11:22 -11 7
18 Eintracht Braunschweig (N) 11 2 1 8 8:23 -15 7
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