By Rich

Borussia Dortmund narrowed Bayern’s lead in the table on Friday with a 5:1 win over visitors Sport-Club Freiburg. Both Erling Haaland and Thomas Meunier notched braces, with Meunier’s goals coming in the 14th and 29th minutes, and Haaland’s in extra time at the end of the first half and in the 75th minute. Dortmund’s fifth goal came in the 86th minute, from Mahmoud Dahoud, while Freiburg’s lone goal came in the 61st minute, from Ermedin Demirovic. Both of Meunier’s goals were headers, his first header goals in the Bundesliga, while Haaland has now scored 4 goals in 5 meetings with Freiburg. Dortmund have never lost at home to Freiburg in the Bundesliga. Bayern will look to restore their 6-point lead over Dortmund when they travel to Cologne on Saturday. The Bavarians are coming off a 2:1 loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach, a defeat that occurred while many of the first-team regulars were absent. Cologne will be counting on the continued scoring prowess of Anthony Modeste, who has scored 4 times in his last 3 appearances, and a win at home could lift them as high as third place in the league. Another match to watch on Saturday will be that between hosts Wolfsburg and visitors Hertha Berlin. Both clubs have struggled this season and just 1 point separates them in the table. Wolfsburg are still without top scorer Lukas Nmecha, who is nursing an ankle injury, while Hertha are without joint top scorer Stevan Jovetic, who is also injured. Wolfsburg are currently in their longest winless streak since the 1976-77 season, while Hertha are winless in 3 and have won just 2 of their last 10 Bundesliga meetings with Wolfsburg. The big match on Saturday is another Rheinderby, this time between hosts Borussia Mönchengladbach and nearby Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Gladbach have defeated Bayern twice in recent months, but they will have to find a way to stop Leverkusen scorer Patrik Schick, who contributed to the 4:0 win in the reverse fixture earlier in the season. Gladbach have actually lost their last 4 meetings with Leverkusen, and only Bayern have collected more points away from home than Leverkusen this season. Looking ahead to Sunday, the league’s 2 bottom-dwellers will face off when Bielefeld host Fürth in the weekend’s last match. Time is running out for Fürth to avoid automatic relegation at the end of the season, but a win in Bielefeld would actually put them in a better position than Mainz were in at the same point last season.

By Rich

​Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday picked up another win over hosts FC Bayern München. Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski opened the scoring of the season’s Rückrunde with a successful shot in the 18th minute past Gladbach goaltender Yann Sommer. Just 9 minutes later, the visitors evened the tally when Florian Neuhaus volleyed the ball in from about 10 meters out. The match’s final goal came just 4 minutes after that, when Stefan Leiner headed in a corner from Luca Netz. The win means Gladbach have now won 6 and and drawn 1 of their last 11 competitive games with Bayern. Among the more competitive contests on Saturday will be those between Leipzig and Mainz and between Leverkusen and Union Berlin. A big question going into the Leipzig-Mainz contest is the health of Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku, who just returned to the club on Thursday. Nkunku leads the club in goals with 7 and assists with 5, and has featured in all 25 of Leipzig’s competitive matches this term. Visitors Mainz are just 2 points better in the table than Leipzig, whom they beat 1:0 back on Matchday 1. The primary source of goals for Mainz this season has been Jonathan Burkardt, who produced 7 goals in the first half of the season, and this first half was the best Mainz has had in 6 years. Over in Leverkusen, 1 more of the league’s top scorers will feature when Union Berlin visit. Leverkusen’s Patrik Schick is second only to Robert Lewandowski in goals so far, and Schick’s tally includes 8 goals in just the last 4 appearances. Schick’s scoring prowess has propelled his club to a 4th-place position at the season’s halfway mark, and the club is ahead of Hoffenheim on goal differential. Union Berlin are just 1 point behind Leverkusen, but will be without the services of leading goal-scorer Taiwo Awoniyi, who is preparing for the AFCON finals with Nigeria and is likely to be missing for at least 3 weeks. The club will depend on Kevin Behrens and Andreas Voglsammler to fill in on attack, and could also benefit if Max Kruse is able to extend a recent scoring streak of 2 goals in his last 4 appearances. Looking ahead to Sunday, 2 clubs that are tied on points near the bottom of the table will meet when Wolfsburg travel to Bochum. The hosts collected just 1 point from their last 3 matches of 2021 and ended the Hinrunde ahead of Wolfsburg merely on goal differential and just 3 points above the relegation zone. Wolfsburg started the season strongly but have now lost their last 7 outings in all competitions, and are winless in their last 8, which is their worst losing streak since the club was promoted in 1997.

By Rich

Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski set a new Bundesliga goal record on Friday in a 4:0 shutout of visitors VfL Wolfsburg. Thomas Müller, in his 400th Bundesliga appearance, opened the scoring just 7 minutes in, and then assisted on the next goal from Dayot Upamecano in the 57th minute. Just 2 minutes after that, Leroy Sane found the net off an assist from Serge Gnabry, and the match’s final goal, in the 87th minute, came from Lewandowski off an assist from Jamal Musiala. The goal was Lewandowski’s 43rd in the calendar year. Across his 400 Bundesliga appearances, Müller has scored 133 goals and assisted in 194 more. Bayern have now scored at least 1 goal in 64 consecutive Bundesliga matches, and are just 1 match shy of the record of 65. While Bayern have now begun securing their spot at the top of the table, Wolfsburg have obtained just 1 point from their last 6 league games, the lowest in the division. One match to watch on Saturday will be the derby between hosts Eintracht Frankfurt and visitors 1. FSV Mainz 05. The teams are even on points in the table, with 24 each. Frankfurt are coming off consecutive come-from-behind victories over Leverkusen and Gladbach and have won 5 of their last 6 Bundesliga fixtures. Mainz are having a stellar season so far with so many points after just 16 matches, especially given that they had won just 1 game at this same time last season. They are coming into this match off a 4:0 victory at home over Hertha Berlin, and lost the preceding matchday by just 1 goal against Bayern. Also on Saturday, Hertha will host Borussia Dortmund and will try to prevent Erling Haaland from scoring 54 goals in 54 Bundesliga matches so far. Hertha’s unbeaten streak under new head coach Tayfun Korkut was ended earlier in the week by Mainz, and the club is only 1 point clear of the relegation play-off spot. Hertha have, however, won 11 of their 18 points this season at home. For their part, Dortmund have won 32 of their 68 Bundesliga meetings with Hertha, including each of the last 5 Dortmund are also unbeaten in their last 4 league visits to the Olympiastadion. Looking ahead to Sunday, Freiburg will host Leverkusen as both teams vie for the top berths going into the winter break. The 2 clubs are separated by just 2 points, and the match will decide whether Leverkusen can hold on to their 3rd-place berth or Freiburg can leapfrog them. Competition will resume after the winter break on Friday, January 7th when Bayern host Gladbach.

By Rich

Goals from Andre Hahn and Niklas Dorch drove FC Augsburg to a 2:0 victory on Friday over hosts 1. FC Köln. Both of the goals came late in the game: Hahn’s in the 72nd minute and Dorsch’s in the 88th minute. The victory ended a run of 13 winless away matches for Augsburg, going back to February, and the 3 points give Augsburg some much-needed breathing room above the league’s relegation zone. The loss means that Cologne are no longer the only unbeaten team at home, and this was the first time this season that Cologne striker Anthony Modeste has gone without a goal for more than 3 matches. One of the potentially most competitive matches this weekend occurs on Saturday when Freiburg host nearby Hoffenheim. Hosts Freiburg are coming off a stunning 6:0 win last weekend at Gladbach, putting the club in 4th place, and all 6 goals came from different scorers. Freiburg left-back Christian Günter is set to appear in his 250th Bundesliga match and has been in the starting line-up each of the past 93 matchdays, which is the longest current record of any player in the league, and Freiburg coach Christian Streich will be looking for his 100th Bundesliga win as a coach. Hoffenheim have now scored 11 times in their last 3 matches, moving them into 5th place, just 2 points behind Freiburg. Hoffenheim striker Andrej Kramaric, who has suffered some recent injury scares, is expected to appear on Saturday, and is looking to round out his numbers: the Croatian has scored 99 goals in 199 competitive outings for the club. Also on Saturday, Leipzig will host Gladbach, a fixture that will feature Leipzig’s new coach, Domenico Tedesco. Leipzig parted with former coach Jesse Marsch after last weekend’s 2:1 defeat at Union Berlin. Tedesco is coming off a 2-year stint with Spartak Moscow, and had earlier stints at the helm of Erzgebirge Aue and FC Schalke 04, where he guided the Royal Blues to a 2nd-place finish in the league in his first year. Tedesco will be looking to star striker Christopher Nkunku to end the club’s 3-game losing streak, while opponents Gladbach are coming off painful defeats to Cologne in the Rhine derby and to Freiburg. Looking ahead to Sunday, Leverkusen will travel to Frankfurt as the club looks to hold its place near the top of the table. Leverkusen earned a thorough 7:1 victory over Fürth last weekend, a match that included the 8th assist this season from young star Florian Wirtz and no fewer than 4 goals from star striker Patrik Schick.