Borussia Mönchengladbach’s struggles continued on Friday with a 3:1 loss to hosts FC Augsburg. Although the match remained goalless at the halftime mark, that changed early in the second half, when Augsburg’s Ruben Vargas, who had been substituted in at the halfway mark, scored the match’s first goal in the 52nd minute. The Foals tied the score in the 68th minute with a goal from Florian Neuhaus, but the rest of the match belonged to Augsburg, who picked up goals from Marco Richter in the 76th minute and Andre Hahn in the 89th minute. Gladbach are now without a win in the Bundesliga since mid-January, and a missed penalty kick by Lars Stindl was his first such miss since October 2016. Three of the league’s top teams, Bayern, Wolfsburg, and Dortmund, will have opportunities to pick up more points on Saturday when they take on clubs at the other end of the table. Wolfsburg will host Schalke, and the Wolves are on a 9-game winning streak, as they pursue a return to Champions League competition for the first time since 2015-16. The Royal Blues, on the other hand, are 9 points out of the relegation play-off spot and have just 10 games left to figure out a way to avoid being sent down. Bayern will travel north to Bremen, and Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski could on Saturday become the second-highest goalscorer of all time, as he would need just 2 goals to pass Klaus Fischer’s 267 career goals. A win for Bayern would put them 5 points clear of 2nd-place Leipzig, pending the outcome of the Leipzig-Frankfurt match on Sunday. The reverse fixture earlier in the season ended, however, in a 1:1 draw, and Bremen striker Josh Sargent has been hot in recent weeks. In the late game on Saturday, Dortmund will host Hertha Berlin, as Dortmund’s Erling Haaland hunts for his 20th Bundesliga goal of the season. Although Haaland took a knock in last weekend’s match against Bayern, he returned to play during the week in the match against Sevilla, and has managed to score 5 goals in his last 4 outings in the league. Hertha remain just above the relegation zone, 2 points ahead of Bielefield in the relegation play-off spot. Hertha have claimed just 13 of a possible 48 points since November, but did manage a last-minute win over Augsburg last weekend. Looking ahead to Sunday, Hoffenheim will travel to nearby Stuttgart in a match that will feature 3 more of the league’s best strikers in Sasa Kalajdzic, Silas Wamangituka and Andrej Kramaric. Hoffenheim’s Kramaric is 5th in the league with 14 goals, while Stuttgart’s Wamangituka and Kalajdzic are 6th and 7th with 23 goals between them.
By Rich
Borussia Mönchengladbach’s struggles continued on Friday with a 3:1 loss to hosts FC Augsburg. Although the match remained goalless at the halftime mark, that changed early in the second half, when Augsburg’s Ruben Vargas, who had been substituted in at the halfway mark, scored the match’s first goal in the 52nd minute. The Foals tied the score in the 68th minute with a goal from Florian Neuhaus, but the rest of the match belonged to Augsburg, who picked up goals from Marco Richter in the 76th minute and Andre Hahn in the 89th minute. Gladbach are now without a win in the Bundesliga since mid-January, and a missed penalty kick by Lars Stindl was his first such miss since October 2016. Three of the league’s top teams, Bayern, Wolfsburg, and Dortmund, will have opportunities to pick up more points on Saturday when they take on clubs at the other end of the table. Wolfsburg will host Schalke, and the Wolves are on a 9-game winning streak, as they pursue a return to Champions League competition for the first time since 2015-16. The Royal Blues, on the other hand, are 9 points out of the relegation play-off spot and have just 10 games left to figure out a way to avoid being sent down. Bayern will travel north to Bremen, and Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski could on Saturday become the second-highest goalscorer of all time, as he would need just 2 goals to pass Klaus Fischer’s 267 career goals. A win for Bayern would put them 5 points clear of 2nd-place Leipzig, pending the outcome of the Leipzig-Frankfurt match on Sunday. The reverse fixture earlier in the season ended, however, in a 1:1 draw, and Bremen striker Josh Sargent has been hot in recent weeks. In the late game on Saturday, Dortmund will host Hertha Berlin, as Dortmund’s Erling Haaland hunts for his 20th Bundesliga goal of the season. Although Haaland took a knock in last weekend’s match against Bayern, he returned to play during the week in the match against Sevilla, and has managed to score 5 goals in his last 4 outings in the league. Hertha remain just above the relegation zone, 2 points ahead of Bielefield in the relegation play-off spot. Hertha have claimed just 13 of a possible 48 points since November, but did manage a last-minute win over Augsburg last weekend. Looking ahead to Sunday, Hoffenheim will travel to nearby Stuttgart in a match that will feature 3 more of the league’s best strikers in Sasa Kalajdzic, Silas Wamangituka and Andrej Kramaric. Hoffenheim’s Kramaric is 5th in the league with 14 goals, while Stuttgart’s Wamangituka and Kalajdzic are 6th and 7th with 23 goals between them.
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By Rich
Bote Ridle Nzuzi Baku is a 22-year-old midfielder for VfL Wolfsburg. Baku was born on April 8, 1998 in Mainz, Germany, and spent his youth career playing for 1. FSV Mainz 05 from 2007 to 2018. His senior career continued at Mainz, where he made his debut for Mainz 05 II on July 30, 2017 in a 3:0 home win in the Regionalliga Südwest against FSV Frankfurt. His professional debut came on December 19, 2017 in the 2017-18 DFB Pokal, in a 3:1 home win against VfB Stuttgart. Finally, his Bundesliga debut came on April 29, 2018 in a 3:0 home win over RB Leipzig, when he scored the final goal of the match, in the 90th minute. Baku has also made 31 appearances for Germany’s U18, U19, U20, U21, and senior squads since 2015, scoring 4 goals. Baku was given the nickname “Ridle” by his father, who was a fan of Karl-Heinz Riedle, and in 2018, Baku had his name legally changed to include “Ridle”. By Rich
Two of the clubs facing relegation at the end of the season played a scoreless tie on Friday, when Schalke hosted Mainz. The match featured the debut of yet another coach for Schalke in Dimitrios Grammozis, who made 143 appearances as a player in the Bundesliga. Grammozis in turn allowed 18-year-old Kerim Calhanoglu to make his Bundesliga debut at left-back - Calhanoglu is the 34th different player to be fielded by Schalke in the current season, and he is the cousin of former Hamburg and Leverkusen player Hakan. The point picked up by Schalke leads them still 8 points behind Mainz, while the point for Mainz moved them momentarily into the relegation play-off spot going into the rest of the weekend’s contests. The big match on Saturday, of course, is the Klassiker between hosts FC Bayern München and visitors Borussia Dortmund, and the match will feature two of the league’s, and the world’s, best strikers: Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland. Lewandowski has scored 28 goals this season and still has 11 matches to tie or exceed the league record of 40 goals set long ago by Gerd Müller. Haaland, meanwhile, has scored 17 goals in 18 Bundesliga appearances, and scored his 4th assist of the campaign last weekend in a 3:0 win over Bielefeld. The odds for this match, of course, are in Bayern’s favor: Lewandowski has scored 19 goals in 22 meetings with Dortmund, including 5 braces and 1 hat trick, and Dortmund have lost their last 6 league matches in Munich. Close behind Bayern in the table, however, are Leipzig’s Red Bulls, who will travel south to Freiburg on Saturday. They face a formidable opponent, in their hosts: Freiburg have won 4 of their last 5 Bundesliga encounters with Leipzig when playing at home, and the club is currently just 3 points out of a spot in European contention. Leipzig only managed a 3:2 win over Gladbach last weekend after falling behind 2:0, and captain Marcel Sabitzer will be out of service on a 1-match ban. Nevertheless, Leipzig are currently on a 5-match winning streak, and a win Saturday morning would put them momentarily in first place, awaiting the outcome of the Klassiker later in the day. Relative positions at the bottom of the table won’t be settled until Sunday, when Bielefeld host Union Berlin. Bielefeld picked up a new coach this week in Frank Kramer, who replaced Uwe Neuhaus, who was released after last week’s loss at Dortmund. A win against Union Berlin could move them out of the relegation zone entirely, depending on the outcome of Saturday’s match between Hertha and Augsburg, but won’t come easy: Union won 5:0 in the reverse fixture this season. |
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