Borussia Dortmund consolidated its position in 4th place on Friday with a 3:0 shutout of visitors Sport-Club Freiburg. Dortmund’s goals came courtesy of Donyell Malen in the 16th and 45th minutes, and Niclas Füllkrug in the 87th minute. Füllkrug’s goal was celebrating his 31st birthday on Friday, and the goal was his 10th of the season. Füllkrug also set up both goals in Malen’s brace. While Freiburg remain in 7th place for now, their chances for European competition are dimmed with the loss, as the club now lies 3 points behind 6th-place Frankfurt going into the rest of the weekend’s matches. Saturday’s early contests will see more clubs jockeying for better position in the bottom half of the table. Union Berlin go into their game against visitors Wolfsburg just 3 points outside of the relegation zone, and the home team has won its last 3 consecutive home matches. A fourth would equal the club record set in the 2019/20 season. Wolfsburg won this season’s reverse fixture 2:1. VfL Bochum 1848 are 3 points ahead of Union Berlin going into the former’s outing to Frankfurt, and will be facing a club that has won its last 3 home matches. Both of the last 2 contests between the 2 sides ended in 1:1 draws. SV Darmstadt 98, in last place at the table, will travel to Gladbach, and the clubs currently feature the league’s most porous defenses. Darmstadt have conceded 49 goals so far this season, and Gladbach have conceded 41. The reverse fixture this season ended in a 3:3 draw, but did feature a thrilling comeback for Gladbach from a 3:0 deficit. The big match on Saturday, though, is the late game between hosts Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern München, and will almost certainly set the trajectory for the remainder of the season, as just 2 points separate the 2 sides at the top of the table. The hosts currently feature the best defensive record in the league, and goalkeeper Lukás Hrádecky has accumulated 58 saved shots this campaign. In attack, Bayern of course features the division highest goal scorer in Harry Kane, who is comfortably in first place in scoring. This is the first time in Bundesliga history that 2 teams have at least 50 points after 20 matchdays. A Leverkusen win would give the home side a 5-point cushion in the table, while a Bayern win would give the visitors the top spot in the table for the first time since the close of play on Matchday 5. Looking ahead to Sunday, both 1. FC Köln and 1. FSV Mainz will look to gain on Union Berlin on twin outings south to Baden-Württemberg, when Köln travel to Hoffenheim and Mainz travel to Stuttgart.
By RIch M.
Borussia Dortmund consolidated its position in 4th place on Friday with a 3:0 shutout of visitors Sport-Club Freiburg. Dortmund’s goals came courtesy of Donyell Malen in the 16th and 45th minutes, and Niclas Füllkrug in the 87th minute. Füllkrug’s goal was celebrating his 31st birthday on Friday, and the goal was his 10th of the season. Füllkrug also set up both goals in Malen’s brace. While Freiburg remain in 7th place for now, their chances for European competition are dimmed with the loss, as the club now lies 3 points behind 6th-place Frankfurt going into the rest of the weekend’s matches. Saturday’s early contests will see more clubs jockeying for better position in the bottom half of the table. Union Berlin go into their game against visitors Wolfsburg just 3 points outside of the relegation zone, and the home team has won its last 3 consecutive home matches. A fourth would equal the club record set in the 2019/20 season. Wolfsburg won this season’s reverse fixture 2:1. VfL Bochum 1848 are 3 points ahead of Union Berlin going into the former’s outing to Frankfurt, and will be facing a club that has won its last 3 home matches. Both of the last 2 contests between the 2 sides ended in 1:1 draws. SV Darmstadt 98, in last place at the table, will travel to Gladbach, and the clubs currently feature the league’s most porous defenses. Darmstadt have conceded 49 goals so far this season, and Gladbach have conceded 41. The reverse fixture this season ended in a 3:3 draw, but did feature a thrilling comeback for Gladbach from a 3:0 deficit. The big match on Saturday, though, is the late game between hosts Bayer 04 Leverkusen and FC Bayern München, and will almost certainly set the trajectory for the remainder of the season, as just 2 points separate the 2 sides at the top of the table. The hosts currently feature the best defensive record in the league, and goalkeeper Lukás Hrádecky has accumulated 58 saved shots this campaign. In attack, Bayern of course features the division highest goal scorer in Harry Kane, who is comfortably in first place in scoring. This is the first time in Bundesliga history that 2 teams have at least 50 points after 20 matchdays. A Leverkusen win would give the home side a 5-point cushion in the table, while a Bayern win would give the visitors the top spot in the table for the first time since the close of play on Matchday 5. Looking ahead to Sunday, both 1. FC Köln and 1. FSV Mainz will look to gain on Union Berlin on twin outings south to Baden-Württemberg, when Köln travel to Hoffenheim and Mainz travel to Stuttgart.
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By Rich M.
Borussia Dortmund’s 3-match winning start to 2024 came to an end on Friday with a 0:0 draw against hosts 1. FC Heidenheim. The tie leaves Dortmund in 4th place in the table, while Heidenheim, who are unbeaten in 6 matches on home soil, move 12 points clear of the relegation zone. The reverse fixture between the 2 clubs, back on Matchday 3, also ended in a draw, which brought Heidenheim their first-ever Bundesliga point. One of the league’s most legendary fixtures comes on Saturday, when Bayern host Borussia Mönchengladbach. The clubs enjoyed one of the league’s biggest rivalries, dating back to the 1970s, when they shared the Meisterschale in 9 consecutive seasons. Both teams arrived in the 1. Bundesliga in 1965, having won promotion from their respective regional leagues. Bayern were propelled by the trio of Gerd Müller, Franz Beckenbauer, and goalkeeper Sepp Maier, and Müller still holds the record of the league’s all-time leading scorer. Bayern won their first league title at the close of the 1968-69 season, but it was Gladbach who took the title just 1 season later. Gladbach’s coach was the the legendary Hennes Weisweiler, who trained coaches at the German Sports University in Cologne. Weisweiler helmed a fast and young squad that led to the nickname, the “Foals”, by which the club is still known today. With a roster that included Günter Netzer, Herbert Wimmer, Jupp Heynckes, and Berti Vogts, Gladbach became the first club to win back-to-back league titles. While Bayern have continued to enjoy success since the 1970s rivalry, Gladbach’s only domestic trophy since then has been the DFB Pokal in 1995. In the current season’s reverse fixture, Bayern came from behind to win on Matchday 3. Saturday’s matches will also include a derby between hosts Sport-Club Freiburg and visitors VfB Stuttgart. The visitors are enjoying a stellar season, going into Saturday in 3rd place in the table and are the only club in the league with 2 players in double digits on goals: Serhou Guirassy with 17 and Deniz Undav with 12. It was Guirassy who hit a brace in the reverse fixture this season, which Stuttgart won 5:0. In Saturday’s late game between hosts 1. FC Köln and visitors Eintracht Frankfurt, Köln trainer Timo Schultz has already said he is aiming for 3 points. The last time Köln only had 12 points this far in the season, in 2017/18, the club was relegated. Looking ahead to Sunday, Wolfsburg will host Hoffenheim in a contest between 2 teams that are separated by just 3 points. Both clubs have had mediocre seasons and are looking to turn things around, and the Wolves now face former standout Wout Weghorst. By Rich M.
A large build-up of ice in the stands at Mainz’s MEWA Arena resulted in a postponement of Friday’s match between hosts 1. FSV Mainz 05 and visitors 1. FC Union Berlin. With that delay, this weekend’s action in the 1. Bundesliga commences on Saturday. Among Saturday’s matches is a derby between hosts SC Freiburg and visitors TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, and just 1 point separates the clubs in the table. Freiburg won the reverse fixture 2:1 back on Matchday 1, and since the beginning of December have won against Mainz, Wolfsburg, and Cologne, while losing to Heidenheim and drawing with Union Berlin. During the same period, Hoffenheim have lost to Borussia Mönchengladbach, RB Leipzig, and FC Bayern München, while defeating VfL Bochum and drawing with SV Darmstadt. Also facing off on Saturday and separated by 1 point in the table are hosts 1. FC Heidenheim and visitors VfL Wolfsburg. The hosts are currently on a roll, as no team has collected more points (10) from their past 4 league games than Heidenheim, who are unbeaten in their last 4 at home and have collected 16 from a possible 21 points this season at the Voith Arena. Wolfsburg did, however, win the reverse fixture 2:0, thanks to a brace from Jonas Wind, in Heidenheim’s first-ever Bundesliga match. Darmstadt will struggle to make it out of the relegation zone when they host next-door neighbors Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday. Darmstadt are winless in their last 10 league games, and have collected just 1 point from their last 6 at home, while failing to score in each of their last 4 as hosts. Frankfurt, meanwhile, are looking for their 3rd consecutive league win for the first time under Dino Toppmöller. Frankfurt won the reverse fixture of the Hessenderby by a score of 1:0 back on Matchday 1. Saturday’s late game is an important one for both participants. Visitors RB Leipzig are in 4th place in the table and trail 3rd-place Stuttgart by just 1 point, while hosts Leverkusen are just ahead of 2nd-place Bayern, who host Bremen on Sunday. Leverkusen’s Florian Wirtz was named December’s Player of the Month, and had a role in 4 goals in December, scoring 2 and assisting in the other 2. Wirtz has collected 7 assists so far this season, tied in second place behind Bayern’s Leroy Sané. Sané and his teammates are likely looking forward to hosting Bremen on Sunday: Die Werderaner are without a victory in their last 33 matches with Bayern in all competitions, and have lost 26 of the last 27 meetings. The weekend’s competition concludes with what could be a close match between hosts Borussia Mönchengladbach and visitors FC Augsburg. By Rich M.
Jamal Musiala picked up a brace on Friday as hosts FC Bayern München defeated visitors TSG 1899 Hoffenheim 3:0. Musiala’s first goal came in the 18th minute, thanks to an assist from Leroy Sané, and the second goal came in the 70th minute, and was again assisted by Sané. The game’s final goal came courtesy of Harry Kane, in the 90th minute, with a low finish. Prior to the game, the Allianz Arena paid tribute to one of the club’s greats, Franz Beckenbauer, who passed away on Sunday at the age of 78. Beckenbauer was the first player to captain a team to 3 consecutive European Cups, between 1974 and 1976. Musiala’s opener also set a record, as Bayern have scored at least once in each of their last 65 home games, which is a new high for the club. The match was the first time in 20 games that Hoffenheim have failed to score, ending their own club record of 19 consecutive matches with at least 1 goal each. Bayern’s biggest competitor this season, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, will travel to Augsburg on Saturday. Leverkusen are the league’s only unbeaten club left in the current season, and have dropped points just 3 times across 16 matches. They are also leading Europe’s clubs in average 2.625 points per game, and are enjoying the longest run of competitive matches without defeat to start a season in German history: 25 in all competitions. Leverkusen’s hosts on Saturday have not done as well, having picked up just 1 win in their first 7 league games before replacing Enrico Maaßen with Jess Throup. The change did result in a 6-match unbeaten streak, but that was followed by a pickup of just 1 point in their next 3 matches. Nevertheless, the club remains in 11th place and is 8 points clear of the relegation zone. Saturday’s late match is between hosts SV Darmstadt 98 and visitors Borussia Dortmund, the latter having made 2 key personnel changes during the winter break. Dortmund signed Dutch full-back Ian Maatsen on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season, and is expected to debut on Saturday. Maatsen joined Chelsea from PSV Eindhoven’s youth academy when he turned 16 in 2018, but had only made 12 appearances for the Blues this season. Dortmund also signed Jadon Sancho, who is making his return to Signal Iduna Park from Manchester United. Sancho originally joined Dortmund in August 2017 from Manchester City, and went on to have a role in 108 goals (50 goals, 58 assists) across 137 appearances for the club in all competitions. Looking ahead to Sunday, get ready for a close match between VfL Bochum 1848 and SV Werder Bremen, who are tied on points in the table with 16 apiece, 6 clear of the relegation zone. |
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