Round 29, Apr 17-19
This wasn’t a great week for the Bundesliga, as Bayern was stunned in Porto for Champions League – although they still have a chance of overcoming that. Furthermore, high flying Wolfsburg was embarrassed at homeby Napoli, and almost zero chance of turning that around.
However, the big news midweek, was Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp announcing that he would resign from Borussia at the end of the season. He has been there 7 years, and probably built Dortmund’s greatest teams, winning back-to-back title, playing in the Champions League, basically having outstanding seasons after coming over Mainz, whom he had put on the map. Certinly the last couple of years have been trying, and he seemed a bit baffled, frustrated and tired, but he remains one of the best football minds on the planet. Interestingly enough, he has also stated “that he could come back to Borussia some day”. However after the win, BVB announced that Thomas Tuchel will be taking over next season. This is interesting in that not only is Tuchel considered one of German football’s brightest minds, he is a protege of Klopp. He followed Klopp at Mainz and continued, perhaps even raised the bar for the club. Now he will try and do the same at Dortmund.
Frankfurt and Gladbach battled to draw which keeps both sides aspirations alive. Gladbach of course would prefer automatic qualification for the Champions League, but they’ll be in it next season. Frankfurt is trying to sneak in to Europe, and they could have used a win. They were a bit better than Gladbach, but the draw is probably correct.
The Neons took a while to get fully in gear, but totally dominated Paderborn in what is Klopp’s “goodbye tour”. It looked like old times as BVB controlled the match and left the opponents with nothing.
Leverkusen is certainly in top form these days. The Aspirins easily crushed a hapless Hannover side, getting their 7th straight Bundesliga win, a club record. The 96ers decided to blame their coach, Tayfun Korkut, who was fired shortly afterwards, and replaced by Michael Frontzcek.
Hoffenheim had some chances against leaders Bayern, but in the end the champs were able to hold on for another win. Guardiola’s team has a lot of injuries, so it was a bit of a makeshift lineup, but it was still good enough to get eth job down. Especially in the first half Hoffenheim had some decent chances, but failed to convert and were ultimately punished.
Hertha and Köln have done enough work to stay up, and they “celebrated” their achievement with a dour, boring, defensive draw. Splitting an extra point gives each side a bit more comfort. Köln also set a dubious club record, this was their 8th scoreless draw of the season.
Mainz are like the annoying guest who shows up at your party, gets drunk and ruins everything. Freiburg certainly was hoping to grab some key points and give themselves some breathing room. And the Briesgauers did create a lot of chances, but wasted them. Instead, Shinji Okazaki added to his tally as the Bundesliga’s all-time leading Japanese goal scorer (37), reaching a respectable 12 this season. The Mainzers of course also needed something to allow them to not worry about getting dragged into relegation, and got the result.
Stuttgart largely outplayed hosts Augsburg, but wasted too many chances. The Fuggers on the other hand seized their opportunities and got a win that keeps them in Europe. Stuttgart really should have won this, which would have allowed them to leap out of the drop zone. Instead they remained mired in the dreck for another week at least.
Hamburg remains last as they lost the 102nd Northern Derby at Bremen. It was a typical derby atmosphere, hard fought, with not too many chances. HSV was close to a point, despite being on the back foot for most of the match. But then Behrami was whistled for a foul in the box, and di Santo knocked home the penalty. This was Bremen’s 500th Bundesliga home win, but more importantly it’s another stab that could send HSV down, which should provide a fair amount of glee for the Werder fans. Bremen has turned around their season since Viktor Skripnik took over. HSV had just appointed Bruno Labbadia as their new boss. Their effort was there (which was usually missing in previous matches), but he clearly has his hands full.
Wolfsburg dominated Schalke, but teh Blues defending fiercely and drew blood on a counter. The VWs finally broke through to equalize, but were unable to get anymore. Obviously a better result for the visitors, as they look to secure their Euro spot. Wolfsburg is secure in 2nd, and will be more worried about whether there is continued fallout from their ass-whupping from Napoli.
Total attendance 369,762 (avg 41,085), 93.4% capacity, sellouts in Frankfurt, Dortmund, Hoffenheim, Freiburg, Augsburg, Bremen, Wolfsburg – 7 of 9 venues!
Eintracht Frankfurt - Bor. Mönchengladbach 0:0 (0:0) 51,500 *
Borussia Dortmund - SC Paderborn 07 3:0 (0:0) 80,667 *
1:0 H. Mkhitaryan (48., Aubameyang)
2:0 Aubameyang (55., Ginter)
3:0 Kagawa (80., H. Mkhitaryan)
Bayer 04 Leverkusen - Hannover 96 4:0 (2:0) 29,482
1:0 Toprak (20., Calhanoglu)
2:0 Brandt (40., Kießling)
3:0 K. Papadopoulos (49., Kießling)
4:0 Kießling (70., L. Bender)
TSG Hoffenheim - Bayern München 0:2 (0:1) 30,150 *
0:1 Rode (38., Lewandowski)
0:2 Beck (90. + 3, own goal, T. Müller)
Hertha BSC - 1. FC Köln 0:0 (0:0) 51,203
SC Freiburg - 1. FSV Mainz 05 2:3 (0:2) 24,000 *
0:1 Okazaki (39., Jairo)
0:2 Okazaki (45., Noveski)
1:2 Mehmedi (81., Schmid)
1:3 Malli (84., Brosinski)
2:3 Schmid (90. + 1, Petersen)
FC Augsburg - VfB Stuttgart 2:1 (1:1) 30,660 *
1:0 To. Werner (7., Esswein)
1:1 Ginczek (22., Kostic)
2:1 Bobadilla (73., To. Werner)
Werder Bremen - Hamburger SV 1:0 (0:0) 42,100 *
1:0 di Santo (84., penalty, Junuzovic)
VfL Wolfsburg - FC Schalke 04 1:1 (0:0) 30,000 *
0:1 L. Sané (53.)
1:1 De Bruyne (78., D. Caligiuri)
1 Bayern München (M, P) 29 23 4 2 76:13 +63 73
2 VfL Wolfsburg 29 18 7 4 63:31 +32 61
3 Bayer 04 Leverkusen 29 15 9 5 56:31 +25 54
4 Bor. Mönchengladbach 29 15 9 5 44:22 +22 54
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5 FC Schalke 04 29 11 9 9 38:32 +6 42
6 FC Augsburg 29 13 3 13 36:37 -1 42
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7 Werder Bremen 29 10 8 11 44:57 -13 38
8 TSG Hoffenheim 29 10 7 12 43:47 -4 37
9 Borussia Dortmund 29 10 6 13 38:37 +1 36
10 Eintracht Frankfurt 29 9 9 11 51:57 -6 36
11 1. FSV Mainz 05 29 7 13 9 40:41 -1 34
12 1. FC Köln (N) 29 8 10 11 29:35 -6 34
13 Hertha BSC Berlin 29 9 7 13 34:45 -11 34
14 SC Freiburg 29 6 11 12 29:39 -10 29
15 Hannover 96 29 7 8 14 32:49 -17 29
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14 SC Paderborn (N) 29 6 9 14 25:56 -31 27
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17 VfB Stuttgart 29 6 8 15 32:53 -21 26
18 Hamburger SV 29 6 7 16 16:44 -28 25
M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted