Round 26, Mar 20-22
Actually, the bigger news this week is probably some huge results for bottom clubs, but whenever Bayern doesn’t win, it’s headlines. The leaders lost at home to Gladbach, and everyone must be wondering how that happened. Gladbach defended well, but virtually did squat the whole match. Actually, the reason bayern lost is largely because GK Manuel Neuer had brainfarts. By all accounts, he’s the best goal keeper in the world, but he is famous for his Neuerisms, which usually end up causing a goal. This time he wasn’t running around, but the first Gladbach shot – after 30 minutes – he flubbed and allowed to dribble in the goal. The second he probably should have had the weak shot, but let it go under his body. That was basically it for Gladbach, but it stood up because Bayern’s tiki-taka up front didn’t light a fire and instead looked heavy and clumsy. Huge win for Gladbach, inflicting Bayern’s first home loss.
Hertha was a huge winner as the Berliners upended Hamburg in a relegation 6-pointer. HSV started out brightly, but soon Hertha clamped down on defense and both sides pulled back, seemingly not wanting to risk losing. But in the end, Hertha got the break. First Cleber left HSV a man down after a silly foul, and then Plattenhardt floated in a perfect cross for Langkamp to head home the winner.
Freiburg had a huge win against Augburg. Down the stretch the Breisgauers were a bit more fortunate and they got the critical win. Nils Petersen once again proved to be key, as the super-sub got his 4th goal in 4 matches, quite a nice haul since joining from Bremen in the winterbreak.
Stuttgart defeated Frankfurt in a desperate match. VfB absoultely needed something positive, rooted firmly at the bottom. Frankfurt was actually the better team for most of the match, and perhaps should have put things away. In the end, it was Daniel Ginczek who was the difference, his first match back after a long injury absence.
Paderborn tried to upend Hoffenheim on physical effort. The home side was clearly technically inferior, but all the players were giving 110% effort. Things got even hotter for the visitors when they went down a man with about a half hour left. SCP pressed hard to try and get the needed win, but was unable. It’s beginning to look like they’ll go down, despite valiant efforts. You need to win matches like these.
Leverkusen may have won the battle for Champions League. The battle at Schalke would go a long way in deciding the outcome, and the Aspirins were simply better than their hosts. The Schalkers had a few chances that they blew, but in general looked harmless. Bayer didn’t exactly look brilliant, but did what was necessary. With goal difference, they’re essentially 7 points up on the Blues now, that should be enough.
Dortmund had a mixed bag against Hannover. The Neons once again looked very good at times, but broke down on other occasions. The difference was that they were a bit more ruthless in front of goal and it paid off. The 96ers looked much better than in recent matches, trying very hard to get the points.
Mainz and Wolfsburg have been playing decent football, and their match was tense, hard fought, but not particularily brilliant from either side. A draw is the fair result.
Köln and Bremen battled to a draw in a sloppy match. Neither side looked overly impressive, and Köln were perhaps lucky to draw even late on a somewhat dubious penalty.
Total attendance: 408,450 (avg 45,383), 95.8% capacity, sellouts in Hannover, Köln, München
Hamburger SV - Hertha BSC 0:1 (0:0) 53,640
0:1 S. Langkamp (84., Plattenhardt)
Hannover 96 - Borussia Dortmund 2:3 (1:1) 49,000 *
0:1 Aubameyang (19., Reus)
1:1 Stindl (31., Bittencourt)
1:2 Kagawa (57., Reus)
1:3 Aubameyang (61., Kagawa)
2:3 Stindl (82., Kiyotake)
SC Freiburg - FC Augsburg 2:0 (0:0) 23,700
1:0 Schmid (71., Sorg)
2:0 Petersen (84., Darida)
VfB Stuttgart - Eintracht Frankfurt 3:1 (0:0) 48,500
0:1 Seferovic (51., Oczipka)
1:1 Ginczek (63., Harnik)
2:1 Ginczek (66., Maxim)
3:1 Maxim (80., Kostic)
1. FC Köln - Werder Bremen 1:1 (0:1) 50,000 *
0:1 Selke (27., Junuzovic)
1:1 M. Lehmann (88., penalty, Finne)
SC Paderborn 07 - TSG Hoffenheim 0:0 (0:0) 14,401
FC Schalke 04 - Bayer 04 Leverkusen 0:1 (0:1) 61,973 *
0:1 Bellarabi (35., Rolfes)
1. FSV Mainz 05 - VfL Wolfsburg 1:1 (1:0) 32,236
1:0 Bungert (7., Geis)
1:1 Luiz Gustavo (61., Naldo)
Bayern München - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:2 (0:1) 75,137 *
0:1 Raffael (30., Herrmann)
0:2 Raffael (77., Kramer)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 26 20 4 2 70:13 +57 64
2 VfL Wolfsburg 26 16 6 4 57:29 +28 54
3 Bor. Mönchengladbach 26 13 8 5 37:20 +17 47
4 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 26 12 9 5 45:29 +16 45
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5 FC Schalke 04 26 11 6 9 37:31 +6 39
6 FC Augsburg 26 12 2 12 33:34 -1 38
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7 TSG Hoffenheim 26 10 7 9 40:38 +2 37
8 Eintracht Frankfurt 26 9 7 10 49:52 -3 34
9 Werder Bremen 26 9 7 10 41:54 -13 34
10 Borussia Dortmund 26 9 6 11 34:33 +1 33
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 26 6 12 8 35:36 -1 30
12 1. FC Köln (N) 26 7 9 10 26:32 -6 30
13 Hertha BSC Berlin 26 8 5 13 31:44 -13 29
14 Hannover 96 26 7 6 13 29:42 -13 27
15 SC Freiburg 26 5 10 11 26:36 -10 25
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16 Hamburger SV 26 6 7 13 16:37 -21 25
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17 SC Paderborn 07 (N) 26 5 9 12 23:50 -27 24
18 VfB Stuttgart 26 5 8 13 27:46 -19 23
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted