By Rich M

FC Augsburg collected an important 3 points on Friday with a 2:0 shutout of visiting 1. FC Union Berlin. Both of the goals came in the second half of the match. Phillip Tietz intercepted a pass and found the net in the 47th minute, and Sven Michel scored against his former club in the 81st minute. Augsburg remains in 7th place going into the rest of the weekend’s matches, just 3 points behind Frankfurt, while Union Berlin are just 6 points clear of the relegation zone. The battle for a second place finish in the standings continues on Saturday when FC Bayern München host 1. FC Köln. A Bayern win over Köln could extend the home team’s slender hold on the championship by at least a day, but if both Bayern and Stuttgart lose, Leverkusen will become league champions on Saturday. Assuming that Leverkusen do take the championship this weekend, the battle for second place remains, and Bayern’s Harry Kane is still chasing Robert Lewandowski’s single-season scoring record. Kane still needs 10 goals from the final 6 matchdays to catch Lewandowski. The visitors, too, have plenty to play for, as they sit in 17th place, 1 point behind Mainz and 4 points behind Bochum’s spot in safety. The Billy Goats won last time out, and it was the club’s second victory under Timo Schultz. All 5 of Köln’s away fixtures since the beginning of the year have ended in draws: the club’s longest such run in the division. Stuttgart will host Frankfurt in Saturday’s late game, in a contest between the league’s 3rd-place and 6th-place rosters. Stuttgart won the reverse fixture 2:1, thanks to a brace from Deniz Undav, which ended a run of 15 home matches unbeaten for Frankfurt. Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy could set a new club record for goals scored in a single league season. He equaled Mario Gomez’s record of 24 in Dortmund last weekend. League leaders Leverkusen will host Bremen on Sunday in the weekend’s final contest, and could do so having already been crowned champions, depending on the outcomes of the Bayern and Stuttgart matches on Saturday. Regardless of Saturday’s results, however, a Leverkusen win over Bremen will seal the deal. The hosts have dropped points only 4 times in the league this season and have yet to lose a single match in all competitions. It is the first time in their history, and only the second time by any club, that they have reached Matchday 29 without defeat. One final permutation this weekend: if Bayern and/or Stuttgart draw on Saturday, then Leverkusen would only need a point on Sunday to be crowned champions.

By RIch M

​Hosts Eintracht Frankfurt and visitors SV Werder Bremen each picked up a point on Friday in a 1:1 draw in Frankfurt’s Waldstadion. The game’s first goal did not come until the 62 minute, when Bremen’s Milos Veljkovic shot the ball inside Frankfurt’s right post. Frankfurt tied the match in the 77th minute, thanks to a header from Tuta. Both sides finished the game with just 10 men on the pitch each, after dismissals of Jens Stage and Tuta. The result is of little consequence to both clubs, as Frankfurt were going to remain in 6th place regardless of the match’s outcome, while Bremen remains in the middle of the table, 2 points behind Hoffenheim and 1 point ahead of Heidenheim going into the rest of the weekend’s contests. Leverkusen will be playing away at Union Berlin on Saturday, and need just 3 wins from their final 7 matches to be crowned Bundesliga champions for the first time. The club is also on track to make history as the first team to go unbeaten through a league campaign. Leverkusen will also be going to Berlin to compete in the DFB Pokal final next month. A Leverkusen win on Saturday would also tie the league record of 28 unbeaten contests to start a season, which is currently held by Pep Guardiola’s Bayern and Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund from just over 10 years ago. It was a Leverkusen victory in the reverse fixture earlier this season that spelled the end of Urs Fischer’s time as Union Berlin’s trainer, but the club’s fortunes have turned since Nenad Bjelica took over. Union have collected 23 points from their last 16 games, all but ending any fears of relegation. Two important contests on Saturday at the other end of the table will take place, and one of those occurs when 1. FC Köln host VfL Bochum 1848. Köln have only lost 2 of their 31 Bundesliga home games against Bochum, but Bochum are unbeaten in their last 4 games against the Billy Goats, with 3 draws and 1 win. Should Köln win, they could take the relegation play-off spot from Mainz, unless Mainz win their match against visitors Darmstadt. While the reverse fixture ended in a scoreless tie, Mainz haven’t lost any of their last 4 home matches, and Darmstadt are now winless in 20 contests. The late game on Saturday between hosts Borussia Dortmund and visitors VfB Stuttgart is not one to miss, as just 4 points separate the clubs in their 3rd and 4th-place posts. While Stuttgart have won 7 of their last 9, they’ve only won 1 of their last 14 league games in Dortmund. Looking ahead to Sunday, both fixtures feature sides that are separated by just a few points in the table. A win for Hoffenheim at home against Augsburg would bring the 2 clubs level on points.

By Rich M

​With just a few weeks left in the current Bundesliga season, Bayer 04 Leverkusen will have the opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the table when they host Hoffenheim on Saturday. It’s the first time in more than a month since Leverkusen plays ahead of 2nd-place Bayern, and the table leaders could expand their advantage to 13 points. Xabi Alonso’s squad have won their last 7 league fixtures, and have dropped points just once in 2024. In addition to a league title that could be captured in as few as 3 contests, Leverkusen are also dreaming of a DFB Pokal victory and the UEFA Europa League. Alonso also confirmed on Friday that he will be staying with the club next season, and the club’s 22 league wins this campaign is a new club record for an entire league season. The big match this weekend, though is the Klassiker later on Saturday, featuring hosts FC Bayern München and visitors Borussia Dortmund. Saturday’s match is the 110th between the 2 sides, and Bayern have been in fine form recently, including 3 wins in as many games in all competitions and 16 goals. 6 of those goals have come from Harry Kane, who also picked up a hat trick in the reverse fixture earlier this season. Although Kane has been out recently with an ankle injury, he has returned to fitness. Missing from Saturday’s game, though, will be captain Manuel Neuer, who has picked up a muscle fiber tear. Bayern are unbeaten in their last 10 Klassikers and have also won 9 straight games at home against Dortmund. The visitors, however, are also enjoying a decent run of 4 wins on the bounce in all competitions for the first time in a year. Dortmund’s firepower is currently driven by joint-top scorers Niclas Füllkrug and Donyell Malen, and they are complemented by Julian Brandt, who is the division’s third-highest assist provider. Saturday’s game will be Thomas Tuchel’s 50th in charge of Bayern, while Jadon Sancho and Marco Reus are the only surviving players from the last time Dortmund defeated Bayern in the league, in November 2018. Looking ahead to Sunday, Stuttgart’s MHP Arena will become the first stadium to host 1,000 Bundesliga matches when Heidenheim visit. The stadium has operated since the 1930s and has been a venue for top-flight contests since the 1. Bundesliga was founded in 1963. Although VfB Stuttgart themselves have not yet contested 1,000 matches in the top flight, the MHP Arena has also been used by the Stuttgarter Kickers, who were in the top flight in the 1988/89 and 1991/92 seasons. Matchday 27 will conclude later on Sunday when VfL Bochum 1848, who are 6 points clear of relegation, host last-place SV Darmstadt 98. The 2 sides lead the league in the number of goals conceded: 54 for Bochum and 65 for Darmstadt.

By Rich M.

​Leipzig advanced to 4th place in the table on Friday with a 5:1 win over hosts 1. FC Köln. Leipzig’s goals came from Xavi Simons in the 15th minute, Loïs Openda in the 63rd and 67th minutes, Amadou Haidara in the 70th minute, and Yussuf Poulsen in the 82nd minute. Köln’s only goal came in the 18th minute, from Sargis Adamyan, and it was his first league goal in a year and a half. The fight for the league title continues on Saturday when FC Bayern München visit SV Darmstadt 98. The hosts are facing relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, as they are 6 points behind the relegation play-off spot and 12 points out of safety, thanks to a run of 18 games without a win. That winless streak includes a 6:0 loss to Augsburg in Darmstadt’s last home game and an 8:0 loss in the reverse fixture at Bayern. Darmstadt have conceded a league-leading 60 goals this season. Bayern are coming off an 8:1 victory over Mainz last weekend, which allowed them to briefly close the gap on first-place Leverkusen to 7 points. Although Darmstadt drew their first league meeting with Bayern 1:1 way back in 1978, but have lost the next 7, and can at least hope to extend Bayern’s current streak of 4 away matches without a win in all competitions. The late game on Saturday is a derby between hosts TSG 1899 Hoffenheim and nearby VfB Stuttgart. Stuttgart continue to enjoy an unexpectedly successful season, and are closing in on a UEFA Champions League qualification. Stuttgart have long been the leading football club of Baden-Württemberg, including before the Bundesliga’s inaugural season, of which they were a part. Although the club has experienced the highs of 2 German championships and 2 DFB Pokals, they have also experienced the low of relegation. The current campaign began with a 5:0 win over Bochum, and the club went on to win 7 matches by Matchday 9 and at the time were in 2nd place behind Leverkusen. The hosts are also enjoying a respectable season, including a 7th-place berth going into Saturday’s match, and were the winners in the reverse fixture earlier this season. Several of the other clubs in the top half of the table will sort out the table when they compete on Sunday. Eighth-place Freiburg will host first-place Leverkusen, while fifth-place Dortmund will host sixth-place Frankfurt. Leverkusen need to collect 18 points from their final 9 games to take the title, regardless of Bayern’s results, and the Werkself have collected 23 points from the last 9 matches of the Hinrunde. Dortmund are winless in their last 5 league fixtures and have yet to beat a top-6 club this season.