Dortmund relegated! Well, obviously not yet, since there are another 24 games. But with Freiburg’s win, the Neons are now in 17th and scheduled for automatic relegation. Certainly this raises the prospect of BVB winning the Chmapions League and getting demoted in the same season. OK, it’s not too likely on either account. Despite a great campaign winning all their matches so far, undoubtedly Real Madrid and Bayern München are stronger teams. The Neons are probably reasonably close to others such as Chelsea, PSG and Barcelona. So it’s not impossible that they could sneak into the finals once again. And you have to believe that at some point they’ll turn things around in the Bundesliga. But just think of the truly legendary story you could tell if it were to come true!
The balance between Bayern and Dortmund is suprisingly close, even though Bayern has been faboulous since the mid 1960s, and Dortmund has often been crap and even spent four seasons in the 2nd division in the 1970s. Bayern has 39 wins, Dortmund 23, 28 draws. But this was a year when Bayern was on top and Dortmund struggling, so it wasn’t really expected that the Neons could hold out. But they seem to raise themselves for big matches, and battled Bayern from the start. They even took the lead, and then withstood the home side dominance. In the end, a silly penalty did them in. So now the 5th straight Bundesliga loss, and clearly a crisis in Dortmund. Bayern had to work very hard for this one, but once again proved that they’re unstoppable.
Wolfsburg is looking like a team to watch. The VWs were models of efficiency at Stuttgart, who actually didn’t play badly. The hosts created some chances, but wasted them. Instead they watched helplessly as Wolfsburg was ruthless in front of goal, and kicked their ass.
The home fans couldn’t have been too happy, but Schalke held on grimly for a tight win over Augsburg. Surprisingly it was FCA that dominated the match, as Schalke did squat and was on the defensive for the whole match. However a goal by Huntelaar was enough to get the Blues the win, one that they hardly deserved.
Hamburg needs anything they can get, and Leverkusen was willing to leave points. HSV ran around a lot, but were clearly inferior. But the Aspirins hardly seemed interested, and didn’t really look like they wanted to be there. So a huge win for HSV. Leverkusen could have solidified their challenger status, but clearly they’re back to “pretender”, with emphasis on “pretend”.
Werder Bremen got a huge win as well, winning at Mainz. Despite falling behind, the Bremer showed energy under interim coach Viktor Skripnik, and managed to come back and win the match.
Hannover and Frankfurt slugged it out in a snoozer that was eventually decided by a late own goal.
Freiburg got their first win, a tough win at Köln. It was basically a boring match until the guests took the lead on a penalty. Köln then attacked furiously, but the Breisgauer were able to defend and get the points.
Gladbach may be the 2nd best team in the league now. They defeated previously unbeaten Hoffenheim. After a somewhat slow start, the home side began to dominate, and the Hoppers had nothing left to hold them off. A deserved win for MG, along with Bayern the only remaining unbeaten team. Next week is a very interesting match at Dortmund, where a Gladbach win is not out of the question.
Another great result for Paderborn, but their opponent Hertha was total crap, almost just going through the motions, without ideas or urgency. So SCP kept battling and realized that the Berliners were emperors without clothes, and finished them off.
Total attendance 424,750 (avg 47,194), sellout in München, as usual.
FC Schalke 04 - FC Augsburg 1:0 (1:0) 60,954
1:0 Huntelaar (37., Uchida, Atsuto)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - Werder Bremen 1:2 (1:1) 31,017
1:0 Okazaki (3., , Koo)
1:1 di Santo (45.)
1:2 di Santo (49., F. Kroos)
Hannover 96 - Eintracht Frankfurt 1:0 (0:0) 42,200
1:0 Madlung (88., own goal, Marcelo)
VfB Stuttgart - VfL Wolfsburg 0:4 (0:2) 50,050
0:1 Perisic (15.)
0:2 Knoche (45. + 1, De Bruyne)
0:3 De Bruyne (48., Vieirinha)
0:4 Perisic (88., De Bruyne)
Hamburger SV - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1:0 (1:0) 52,990
1:0 van der Vaart (26., penalty, Jansen)
Bayern München - Borussia Dortmund 2:1 (0:1) 71,000 *
0:1 Reus (31., Aubameyang)
1:1 Lewandowski (72.)
2:1 Robben (85., penalty, Ribery)
Bor. Mönchengladbach - TSG Hoffenheim 3:1 (2:1) 52,409
1:0 Hahn (12., Herrmann)
1:1 Modeste (30., Zuber)
2:1 Herrmann (32., Hahn)
3:1 Herrmann (52., Nordtveit)
1. FC Köln - SC Freiburg 0:1 (0:0) 49,500
0:1 Darida (51., Hand penalty)
SC Paderborn 07 - Hertha BSC 3:1 (1:1) 14,630
1:0 Bakalorz (28.)
1:1 Kalou (41., M. Ndjeng)
2:1 Kachunga (52., Wemmer)
3:1 Meha (75., Kachunga)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 10 7 3 0 23:3 +20 24
2 VfL Wolfsburg 10 6 2 2 20:9 +11 20
3 Bor. Mönchengladbach 10 5 5 0 15:5 +10 20
4 TSG Hoffenheim 10 4 5 1 14:10 +4 17
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5 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 10 4 4 2 17:15 +2 16
6 Hannover 96 10 5 1 4 7:11 -4 16
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7 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 10 4 3 3 16:13 +3 15
8 FC Schalke 04 10 4 2 4 14:13 +1 14
9 1. FSV Mainz 05 10 3 5 2 13:12 +1 14
10 FC Augsburg 10 4 0 6 11:12 -1 12
11 1. FC Köln (N) 10 3 3 4 7:8 -1 12
12 Eintracht Frankfurt 10 3 3 4 17:19 -2 12
13 Hertha BSC Berlin 10 3 2 5 15:19 -4 11
14 Hamburger SV 10 2 3 5 4:12 -8 9
15 VfB Stuttgart 10 2 3 5 14:23 -9 9
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16 SC Freiburg 10 1 5 4 9:14 -5 8
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17 Borussia Dortmund 10 2 1 7 11:17 -6 7
18 Werder Bremen 10 1 4 5 12:24 -12 7
1st line: Champions League
2nd line: Europaliga (+ Cup winner)
3rd line: Playoff with 2.Liga 3rd place
4th line: Relegation to 2.Liga
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted