By Rich

​Cologne on Friday obtained their 3rd successive Bundesliga win over hosts SC Paderborn 07 with a 2:1 score. Both of Cologne’s goals came in the first half of the match: the first goal was scored by Jorge Mere in the 28th minute, and the second goal was scored by captain Jonas Hector in the 36th minute. Paderborn’s lone goal finally came in the 73rd minute, when Dennis Srbeny scored his 4th goal in 8 appearances. The win means that Cologne is unbeaten in all 4 Bundesliga matches against Paderborn, and further dims Paderborn’s chances of climbing out of the relegation zone before the end of the season. This Saturday will feature perhaps the biggest Battle of the Borussias in some time when Borussia Mönchengladbach host Borussia Dortmund. The 2 clubs are separated by just 2 points in the upper ranks of the table. Gladbach are unbeaten in their last 5 Bundesliga competitions and have no players out with injuries. Dortmund, for their part, have now notched 3 wins without conceding a single goal, and although are doing without the injured Marco Reus, have benefited from the services of Jadon Sancho, who is the league’s 3rd-highest scorer, and who has either scored or assisted in each of his last 7 Bundesliga matches. Dortmund have won each of the last 9 Bundesliga matches against Gladbach. Earlier on Saturday, 2 more of the league’s top scorers, Wout Weghorst and Timo Werner, will face off when RB Leipzig travel to Wolfsburg. Both teams came from behind last weekend to draw their opponents, and Leipzig’s squad is keenly aware of the 3 points that separate them from 1st-place Bayern. Wolfsburg’s players are unbeaten in 5 matches and just 1 point behind 6th-place Schalke, and are looking for European places again. Even if Leipzig can obtain 3 points against Wolfsburg, 1st place in the league will not be decided until Sunday, when Bayern host nearby Augsburg. Bayern will be wearing an anniversary kit to celebrate the club’s 120th birthday, and have shown they can succeed even without star striker Robert Lewandowski. Last week’s 6:0 rout of Hoffenheim extended their unbeaten streak to 14 in all competitions, and the club is also anticipating the eventual return of injured defender Niklas Süle, who has resumed training while still recovering from a torn ligament. Augsburg could hope for a repeat of the 2:2 draw that resulted from the prior meeting this season of the 2 clubs, but Martin Schmidt’s club has lost each of their last 4 away matches, managing to score just 1 goal. Also on Sunday, a win for Mainz against visiting Düsseldorf could push them further away from the relegation zone.

By Rich

​Bayern München striker Robert Lewandowski scored his 24th and 25th goals of the Bundesliga season on Friday to enable his club to edge visiting Paderborn by a 3:2 score and to secure the club’s top spot in the table, 4 points ahead of Leipzig. Bayern’s Serge Gnabry scored the match’s first goal, however, at the 25th minute, but the visitors were able to tie the match in the 44th minute when Dennis Srbeny slipped the ball past Manuel Neuer. Bayern regained the lead in the 70th minute with Lewandowski’s first goal, but Paderborn’s Sven Michel evened the score again in the 75th minute. The match’s final goal, and Lewandowski’s second, in the 87th minute. Friday’s match was, by the way, Bayern’s 250th in the Bundesliga at the Allianz Arena. RB Leipzig and Timo Werner will look to cut Bayern’s lead in the table when they travel to Schalke on Saturday, and are coming off a disappointing recent streak that includes a loss to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and a 2:2 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach in DFB Pokal competition. Worse for Leipzig, Werner had been in a 5-game goal drought, which finally ended earlier this week with a win against Tottenham in the UEFA Champions League. Schalke, however, managed to beat Leipzig 3:1 when the 2 clubs met earlier this season, and a key part of that win was Amine Harit, who scored 1 goal and assisted on another. Harit has, however, gone 9 Bundesliga matches without a goal, but will be joined on the pitch by top scorer Suat Serdar, who is returning from an ankle problem. Schalke are unbeaten in their last 10 matches at the Veltins-Areana, a dramatic turnaround from their league-worst record at home last season. Another match to watch on Saturday will be that between Hertha Berlin and 1. FC Köln, who are separated by just 3 points in the table. Hertha have won 7 of the last 9 Bundesliga matches against Köln, including the match earlier this season. Until last week’s 1:4 home loss against Bayern, however, Köln had won 4 home matches in succession, but the club has nevertheless struggled on the road this season, having lost 7 of 10. One further key match comes on Monday, when Eintracht Frankfurt host 1. FC Union Berlin. The 2 clubs are separated by just 2 points, and Eintracht could collect their 5th consecutive home win.

By Rich

​Borussia Dortmund picked up 3 points on Friday with a decisive 4:0 win over visiting Eintracht Frankfurt. The game’s first goal did not come, however, until the 33rd minute, when Lukasz Piszczek collected a pass from Achraf Hakimi and fired it into the goal’s bottom corner. The second goal came from Jadon Sancho in the 50th minute, who in turn was followed by Erling Håland in the 54th minute, and finally by Raphael Guerreiro in the 74th minute. Each of the match’s 4 goalscorers also figured in other statistics: Håland is now averaging 1 goal every 38 minutes of play, Sancho made his Bundesliga debut against Frankfurt in 2017 and Dortmund are unbeaten in the 18 Bundesliga matches in which Sancho has scored, Piszczek ended a run of 28 Bundesliga matches without a goal, and Guerreiro has scored 3 of his 5 Bundesliga goals this season in just his last 4 appearances. The win means that Dortmund are the only Bundesliga team yet to lose at home anytime this season in any competition, and Frankfurt have not won away in Dortmund since February 2010. A key competition on Saturday will occur between 2 clubs who are struggling at the bottom of the table, when Paderborn hosts Hertha Berlin. Paderborn’s squad, fighting to avoid an immediate return to the second division, has managed to take 5 points from the last 5 matches, including a 1:1 draw against Schalke, and could climb into the relegation play-off spot with a win against Hertha. Following the controversial and abrupt departure of Jürgen Klinsmann from Hertha earlier this week, the club is now training under former assistant Alexander Nouri. Hertha have not won any of their last 3 competitions, and are without the services of Marius Wolf, who received a red card in the match against Mainz. The clubs have played each other 3 time in the Bundesliga so far, and all 3 matches resulted in a win each for the team playing at home. The battle at the other end of the table remains fierce. Timo Werner and RB Leipzig could regain the top spot with a win over visiting Werder Bremen, who have managed just 1 win in their last 8 Bundesliga matches. Bayern München will travel to Köln on Sunday, and the hosts have been enjoying a strong run thanks to 5 wins in their last 6 matches, driven in part by the scoring of Jhon Cordoba, who has found the net in 6 successive matches at home. Bayern’s Lewandowski, however, will look to avoid going scoreless for a 2nd consecutive match for only the 2nd time this season.

By Rich

Filip Kostic and US international Timothy Chandler each scored 2 goals as Eintracht Frankfurt defeated visiting FC Augsburg on Friday, 5:0. Chandler scored the match’s first 2 goals, in the 37th and 48th minutes, before Andre Silva headed in a cross from Kostic in the 55th minute. Kostic then scored the final 2 goals himself, in the 89th and 90th minutes, to bring Frankfurt to 10 points in the table in its last 4 matches. Chandler has now scored 4 goals in his last 4 matches, second only to Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland in goals scored so far in 2020. Augsburg have now lost 3 away matches in a row, with their last away win coming on Matchday 15 in Hoffenheim. Going into Saturday’s matches, many eyes will be on the league’s 2 clubs from Berlin, who are currently tied in points on the table, with 23 each. Union Berlin will travel to Bremen, who have been stuck in the relegation zone for almost 2 months, and who may have to forego the services of Davie Selke, who sustained a minor hip injury in the mid-week DFB Pokal win over Borussia Dortmund. Union Berlin are 1 of only 4 teams to have lost to Bremen this season, and have lost 4 of their last 5 Bundesliga matches, but are still 4 places and 6 points ahead of their hosts in the table. Hertha Berlin will welcome Mainz to the German capital on Saturday, and the match is likely to see the Bundesliga debut of Krzysztof Piatek, Hertha’s winter acquisition from AC Milan. A win at home would be the 2nd home win under Jürgen Klinsmann, and their first since Matchday 15. Mainz are coming off a streak of 4 straight losses, leaving them 5 points behind Hertha in the table and only 1 above the relegation play-off spot, and have given up 47 goals this season. The big match of the weekend comes on Sunday, when league leaders Bayern host 2nd-place Leipzig, and the 2 clubs are only separated by 1 point in the table. The match will also be a competition between the league’s top goal-scorers, Robert Lewandowski and Timo Werner. Lewandowski has scored 5 goals in 4 matches so far in 2020, but Werner hasn’t found the net in his last 2 Bundesliga starts. Lewandowski and Werner are the first 2 Bundesliga players since Franz Brungs and Johannes Lohr in the 1967/8 season to each have at least 20 goals after 20 matches. The match will also be a reunion of sorts for Bayern’s Joshua Kimmich: he made his professional debut for Leipzig when the club was in the third division.