BUNDESLIGA, Round 31: Relegation battles

Round 31, May 2-3

The relegation battle remains the primary focus in The Bundesliga. The bottom five clubs are scrambling to get points, and only Stuttgart seems to be lagging. The fierce battle seems likely to go down to the wire, and even Hertha Berlin, which looked completely safe, may be a bit nervous.

Hamburg might have been given up for dead, but perhaps their latest coaching change came at the right moment. Usually you get a short-term bonus when the new coach comes in, and Bruno Labbadia may be the beneficiary. HSV travelled to Mainz and got a huge away win that lifts them out of the drop. It was a decent performance, never letting Mainz control the match.

Paderborn got a stunning win at Freiburg and have suddenly made themselves relevant again. This is the type of match you’d expect Freiburg to win, given they have lots of experience in relegation battles. Indeed, the Breisgauer dominated the first period, and took the lead as on-loan Nils Petersen stroked home once again. It seemed like they would have no trouble holding on, but Paderborn coach Andre Breitenreiter decided to go for broke. He threw everything into attack and brought on more offensive players – and hos moves worked brilliantly. Lukas Rupp got both goals, Mahir Saglik assisted on the 2nd. Freiburg was stunned an reacted with last minute furious attack that resulted in a shot crashing off the post, but that was it.

Hannover had perhaps their best performance of the year (2015 that is). The 96ers faced off at Wolfsburg in a Niedersachsen derby and should have lost. The VWs are in decent form and the 96ers have stunk. And Wolfsburg was up by two goals at half-time and cruising. However Hannover showed fight that has been lacking since winterbreak and came storming back to salvage a point, the piece-de-resistance a bicycle-kick goal by Sane from almost top of the box. Despite their heroics, the 96ers drop into the relegation zone given the other results.

Stuttgart continues to have no luck. VfB put in a decent performance at Schalke, who have been struggling. The Blues got an early boost as Huntelaar scored – his first in something like 1,100 minutes. But Stuttagrt fought back and surprisingly took the lead. Schalke reacted with gumption, something that has been missing recently. Huntelaar scored again, and then at the death, A Stuttgart own goal gave them the win. It’s not over, but time is running out for VfB.

Normally Bayern München losing would be the headline, but this wasn’t too unexpected. Pep Guardiola wasn’t too happy with the midweek DFB-Cup failure against Dortmund, and decided also to rest some players for Champions League. So teh champs showed up with a make shift side that included youngsters like Gaudino, Weiser and Streider. Dinosaur Claudio Pizarro started, and was eventually replaced by another youngster, Görtler. So a determined Leverkusen side could very well be expected to have some advantage. By and large the Aspirins were the better team, although World Champion Mario Götze wasted a coupe of sitters in embarrassing fashion. Hakan Calhanhoglu brought Leverkusen into the lead with another of his wonderful freekicks, and the home was on their way to victory.

Hoffenheim and Dortmund battled to a fair draw, as both teams try to sneak into Europe. The Neons got a somewhat suspect equalizer, as the first half was rather bereft of chances. The 2nd period was more lively, both teams having chances for a lead, but nothing scored, and both keep their hope for Euroliga alive.

Largely a snoozer in Augsburg, as FCA was unable to turn their positional advanatge into anything against Köln. I think was the 9th 0-0 for the guests, likely a Bundesliga record.

The highlight of the Bremen-Frankfurt match was probably the return of Bremen legend Thomas Schaaf…as coach of Frankfurt. He received a standing ovation from the Werder fans for his almost lifetime of service as a player and coach. The match itself was a bit ragged, neither side able to impose their will, and Bremen ended up winning, probably fair enough given the balance of play.

Gladbach won at Hertha to re-claim the auto-group qualifier for the Champions League. They were the better side and deserved the win. Berlin was too defensive, and really needs to be careful that they don’t slip into the drop zone. They could use a couple of points to be safe, but as perhaps the most boring team in the league, they are relying on their opponents to fall asleep, which may not be a clever strategy.

Total attendance 337,986 (avg 37,554), 94.6% capacity, sellouts in Schalke, Hoffenheim, Bremen, Freiburg, Leverkusen, Mainz

 	
 	
FC Schalke 04	     -   VfB Stuttgart	        3:2 (1:1)   61,973 *

                    1:0  Huntelaar (9.)
                    1:1  Harnik (22., Ginczek)
                    1:2  Kostic (51., Ginczek)
                    2:2  Huntelaar (78., K.-P. Boateng)
                    3:2  Klein (89., own goal, K.-P. Boateng)

VfL Wolfsburg	     -   Hannover 96	        2:2 (2:0)   29,514

                    1:0  Dost (24., De Bruyne)
                    2:0  Perisic (45., De Bruyne)
                    2:1  Briand (47., Prib)
                    2:2  S. Sané (58.)

FC Augsburg	     -   1. FC Köln	        0:0 (0:0)   29,158

TSG Hoffenheim	     -   Borussia Dortmund	1:1 (1:1)   30,150 *

                    1:0  Volland (33., Schwegler)
                    1:1  Hummels (35., H. Mkhitaryan)

Werder Bremen	     -   Eintracht Frankfurt	1:0 (0:0)   42,100 *

                    1:0  Selke (66., Lukimya)

SC Freiburg	     -   SC Paderborn 07	1:2 (1:0)   24,000 *

                    1:0  Petersen (40., Schmid)
                    1:1  Rupp (70., Lakic)
                    1:2  Rupp (80., Saglik)

Bayer 04 Leverkusen  -   Bayern München	        2:0 (0:0)   30,210 *

                    1:0  Calhanoglu (55., direct freekick)
                    2:0  Brandt (81., Bellarabi)

1. FSV Mainz 05	     -   Hamburger SV	        1:2 (0:1)   34,000 *

                    0:1  Baumgartlinger (37., own goal, Westermann)
                    1:1  Malli (76., Jairo)
                    1:2  Kacar (87.)

Hertha BSC	     -   Bor. Mönchengladbach	1:2 (1:1)   56,881

                    0:1  M. Kruse (11., Raffael)
                    1:1  Stocker (13., Kalou)
                    1:2  Traoré (85., Hazard)
 


 1  Bayern München (M, P)	31   24  4  3 	  77:15  +62 	  76 
 2  VfL Wolfsburg	  	31   18  8  5 	  65:34  +31 	  62 
 3  Bor. Mönchengladbach	31   17  9  5 	  47:23  +24 	  60
 4  Bayer 04 Leverkusen	  	31   16  10 5 	  59:32  +27 	  58
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 5  FC Schalke 04	  	31   12  9  10 	  41:36  +5 	  45 
 6  FC Augsburg	  	        31   13  4  14 	  38:40  -2 	  43
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 7  Werder Bremen	  	31   11  9  11 	  47:59  -12 	  42 
 8  TSG Hoffenheim	  	31   11  8  12 	  46:49  -3 	  41 
 9  Borussia Dortmund	  	31   11  7  13 	  41:38  +3 	  40 
10  1. FSV Mainz 05	  	31    8  13 10 	  43:43   0 	  37 
11  1. FC Köln (N)	  	31    8  12 11 	  30:36  -6 	  36 
12  Eintracht Frankfurt	  	31    9  9  13 	  51:60  -9 	  36 
13  Hertha BSC Berlin	  	31    9  7  15 	  35:48  -13 	  34 
14  Hamburger SV	  	31    8  7  16 	  21:47  -26 	  31 
15  SC Paderborn 07 (N)	  	31    7  10 14 	  29:59  -30 	  31 
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16  SC Freiburg	  	        31    6  12 13 	  32:43  -11 	  30
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17  Hannover 96	  	        31    7  9  15 	  35:53  -18 	  30
18  VfB Stuttgart	  	31    6  9  16 	  36:58  -22 	  27


M = Meister, defending Champion
P = Pokalsieger, Cup winner
N = Neuling, just promoted

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