With Bayern München already crowned champion, the most interesting battle is not for Vizemeister (runner-up), but rather who gets relegated. And this round saw a couple of traditionals get ripped to shreds
Schalke gave a big “FU” to ex-coach Huub Stevens as the Blues played one of their most impressive away displays in routing Stuttgart. The Gelsenkirchen side have been doing better recently, in large part to a couple of players that had been somewhat forgotten on the side-line: Eric Choupo-Moting and Tranquilo Barnetta. The former knocked in 3 goals, and the latter assisted on those, and in general pulled strings nicely in midfield. Stuttgart looked completely lost, running around aimlessly. They now drop to last place.
Werder Bremen is the other that got “owned”. (I must admit I never understood the slang that my kids were throwing around, but after seeing a few “Owned” videos on Youtube, I think it aptly describes what is happening to some of these clubs…). It may have been bittersweet for Werder legend Thomas Schaaf: almost 300 Bundesliga appearances as a player and almost 500 matches as head coach. One minor detail though: he’s now Frankfurt’s coach. And Eintracht gave a powerful display in the 2nd half and rolled over hapless Bremen.
A nervous struggle as Dortmund bested Hoffenheim. The Neons were desperate, having sunk to last place, and their play showed the nervousness. They generally dominated the match, with Ilkay Gündogan providing the goal early with a diving header. However despite clear advantages, they got increasingly worried as the game progressed, unable to put things away and making more mistakes. Luckily for the home side, Hoffenheim was pretty weak, and didn’t seriously challenge. In the end, a deserved win for Dortmund, perhaps getting them out of their funk.
Hamburg also got a crucial victory, against Mainz. Not a great performance, but HSV was at least respectable. Mainz is in somewhat of a crisis, as they failed to win for the 6th match in a row. They are slipping and could easily get dragged into the relegation mire.
It was another routine win for Bayern München, as constant pressure eventually cracked the opposition. This time it was Leverkusen. No question who would win, highlight is probably Frank Ribery’s 100th goal for Bayern…
Wolfsburg gets no love or respect. Let’s face, despite attractive football and a sensational title a few years ago, basically nobody really cares to watch them, relatively speaking. It’s probably their legacy as a corporate team, as everybody knows that Volkswagen called the shots. (I suppose you could say that about the city, with it’s Nazi era roots. It was founded in 1938 as “Stadt des Kraft-durch-Freude-Wagens bei Fallersleben”, so really “Wolfsburg” is quite an improvement). But although recent success has brought some interest locally, on the road nobody is overly exicited when they show up. So in what should be a real hot local derby, the Hannover stadium was not sold out.
Köln was too passive against Augsburg, and basically dicked around aimlessly, especially in the 2nd half. The Fuggers noted they had a chance, and struck right at the end to get a fine away result. In fact, they are probably the “Stealth” squad so far, as they’ve managed to sneak into 3rd!!
Total attendance 443,296 (avg 49,255), sellouts in Dortmund and München. This is I believe the top number so far this season.
Borussia Dortmund - TSG Hoffenheim 1:0 (1:0) 80,000 *
1:0 Gündogan (17., Aubameyang)
Bor. Mönchengladbach - Hertha BSC 3:2 (1:1) 50,190
1:0 Jantschke (9., Hazard)
1:1 Schieber (45., Ben-Hatira)
2:1 Raffael (53., Alvaro Dominguez)
3:1 Hazard (83., Traoré)
3:2 Kalou (90. + 2, penalty, Kalou)
Hannover 96 - VfL Wolfsburg 1:3 (1:1) 41,400
0:1 De Bruyne (4., Perisic)
1:1 Joselu (45. + 1, Briand)
1:2 Dost (69., Perisic)
1:3 Arnold (85., Perisic)
VfB Stuttgart - FC Schalke 04 0:4 (0:3) 44,700
0:1 Choupo-Moting (1., Barnetta)
0:2 M. Meyer (10., Choupo-Moting)
0:3 Choupo-Moting (21., Barnetta)
0:4 Choupo-Moting (61., Barnetta)
1. FC Köln - FC Augsburg 1:2 (1:0) 48,500
1:0 Ujah (13., Olkowski)
1:1 Djurdjic (53., Verhaegh)
1:2 Esswein (90., Halil Altintop)
SC Paderborn 07 - SC Freiburg 1:1 (0:1) 14,738
0:1 Darida (18., penalty, Klaus)
1:1 Kachunga (89.)
Bayern München - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1:0 (0:0) 71,000 *
1:0 Ribery (51., Xabi Alonso)
Hamburger SV - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:1 (1:0) 45,968
1:0 Cleber (32.)
2:0 van der Vaart (54., Hand penalty
2:1 Okazaki (89., Malli)
Eintracht Frankfurt - Werder Bremen 5:2 (1:1) 46,800
1:0 Meier (34., Stendera)
1:1 Gebre Selassie (45., Junuzovic)
2:1 Seferovic (52., Inui)
3:1 Meier (68., Aigner)
4:1 Aigner (76., Oczipka)
4:2 Caldirola (79., Bartels)
5:2 Stendera (80., Inui)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 14 11 3 0 33:3 +30 36
2 VfL Wolfsburg 14 9 2 3 28:13 +15 29
3 FC Augsburg 14 8 0 6 20:14 +6 24
4 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 14 6 5 3 25:18 +7 23 --------------------------------------------------------------------
5 FC Schalke 04 14 7 2 5 25:18 +7 23
6 Bor. Mönchengladbach 14 6 5 3 19:12 +7 23
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7 Eintracht Frankfurt 14 6 3 5 27:26 +1 21
8 TSG Hoffenheim 14 5 5 4 21:22 -1 20
9 Hannover 96 14 6 1 7 14:21 -7 19
10 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 14 4 5 5 19:23 -4 17
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 13 3 7 3 16:18 -2 16
12 1. FC Köln (N) 14 4 3 7 14:20 -6 15
13 Hamburger SV 14 4 3 7 9:18 -9 15
14 Borussia Dortmund 14 4 2 8 15:21 -6 14
15 Hertha BSC Berlin 14 4 2 8 19:26 -7 14
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16 SC Freiburg 14 2 7 5 15:21 -6 13
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17 Werder Bremen 14 3 4 7 20:31 -11 13
18 VfB Stuttgart 14 3 3 8 18:31 -13 12
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