Featured Game – Eintracht Frankfurt 2-1 Bayern München
When it looked like the Bundesliga title race was only going one way this season back in December before the winter break, now due to some erratic Bayern form and some much-needed consistency from Leipzig, the prospect of an eight successive championship is no longer just within touching distance for the Rekordmeister. After a surprise draw at home to Arminia Bielefeld last week, and with the gap between first and second in the table being just five points, the pressure was certainly piled on München to react in this game. The question was just how would they approach the contest?
Ultimately, their approach to the opening stages of the game is what probably cost them in the end. From the first whistle, Eintracht were on top and the first three minutes were a clear example of what was to come in the first half for Bayern. Strangely, however, after those three minutes, there was a lengthy pause to proceedings as one of the assistant referees pulled up injured when running down the side-line nearest to the coaches. Eintracht boss Adi Hütter immediately signalled to the main official as his linesman held what appeared to be his Achilles tendon, and the game stopped for half a dozen minutes as the fourth official prepared himself to take on the new role of running the line and trade places with his injured colleague. It was certainly a peculiar turn of events and especially when everyone was ready for a frantic start to a top of the table clash. Nevertheless, when the contest resumed, so did the pattern of play.
Bayern seemed surprised by the Frankfurt start to the game and the first half almost exactly resembled that which was seen a week prior when they faced Bielefeld. After a short but intense spell of pressure applied by the home team, the opening goal came relatively inevitably on the 12th minute, however due to the enforced break in play, the ball had only been kicked for roughly six minutes. It was a welcome fast start for Eintracht, but only came about from good play. The instrumental Filip Kostic was a constant threat during the opening 45, and it was his mix of pace and precise passing that helped him pick out Daichi Kamada for the goal. Kostic’s good run down the left flank was not stopped and he cut back the ball for the Japanese forward to open up his foot and pass the ball into the far corner of the net beyond Manuel Neuer between the sticks – a well-deserved lead for the Eagles, who now being in full flight were not about to let up.
There were many good performances all over the pitch for the home side in this game, but the matchday’s overall best player was arguably Amin Younes. The German has only recently returned to the Bundesliga after a rather unproductive stint in Italy with Napoli and, even despite potentially missing the ice cream, he is much preferring life back in his homeland. Undoubtedly, it helps that him to be playing in a side who are playing well, unlike the comparatively struggling Neapolitans, however he needed no assistance from his teammates when notching the second goal. When he received the ball on his favoured right foot just inside the penalty area, he unleashed a venomous strike into the far top corner. The hit was so powerful and unexpected, that Neuer did not even have time to dive before he saw the net ripple and his side trailing again by two goals inside the first half for the second week in succession. Due to the earlier in jury to the unfortunate official, there was an unusually long period of stoppage time to round out the half. Although Eintracht did not add to their lead in this time, the damage was already done.
Another similarity between this game and Bayern’s the Monday before, was that the German champions came out for the second period in much better spirit, ready to attack the game head on. However, the only reason was once again that they found themselves needing to eat into a two-goal deficit, but this week’s clash had one major difference: they were not preparing for a second half against a team sitting in the relegation play-off place who had surprised themselves more than most by leading against Bayern, but this time they faced Frankfurt who are looking good for a successful end to the season and a Champions League spot is definitely on the cards. Despite this, the Bavarians are still world champions and they possess the sharpest striker of them all in Robert Lewandowski. Within eight minutes of the restart, he netted his 26th goal of a ridiculous campaign after some mesmerising skill from Leroy Sané. The winger took up the ball on the right by-line before chopping outside and then back in to beat four defenders; he then used the Kostic cut-back tactic for Lewandowski to tap into the net easily from all of six yards out. Amazingly, this was yet another feature shared by the Arminia game, when the Pole got Bayern back into the contest just after halftime a week before. It is almost as if the Bundesliga scriptwriters decided that last week’s proceedings were so entertaining that they only needed to change a couple of lines for this week and let us enjoy the action all over again.
Bayern fans would have enjoyed it even more if a late header from young Stuttgart-born Englishman Jamal Musiala had been converted rather than just sailing over, however the game ended in defeat and they will be starting to nervously look over their shoulders as Leipzig close the gap in the table, with the sides now separated by a mere two points. As for Eintracht Frankfurt, they were impressive again, especially in the first half of course, but they showed defensive resiliency in the second when the prospect of a Bayern team needing to score would have made many others crumble. What was perhaps even more impressive was the fact that they succeeded without the aid of their top scorer André Silva, who trails to only Lewandowski in the Bundesliga scoring charts this season. The Portuguese striker was expected to play in this game, despite news of a slight knock, however his injury may have been slightly severer than at first it seemed. In most likelihood, it will not restrict him from featuring in next weekend’s match for his team, but even if he does miss it, his teammates will not be too worried about getting another result without him after just accomplishing it against the best of the best.
The Games Keep Coming
Schalke 0-4 Borussia Dortmund
The Revierderby or the Ruhr derby is one of the best derbies in all of German football, contested between two of Germany’s most successful clubs. Located in the Ruhr district, Schalke and Borussia Dortmund share fifteen German championship titles, however only Dortmund have been successful in this regard since the founding of the Bundesliga in 1963, having won six in this period but only three since the turn of the century. If this seems like a decline in form for both teams over the years, then the seasons they are both having are off the scale. With Dortmund’s title hopes already out the window with over a third of the season still to be played, and with Schalke in an even worse position sitting bottom of the league table, both teams would have been desperate to bring their fans some relief in the form of a derby victory. The game was always going to be high scoring as all Revierderbies are, and although the trend was continued in this particular meeting, only one of the sides took part in the goal scoring.
Despite the end result, Schalke did start the game fairly well, creating a few half chances and restricting the undoubtedly stronger Dortmund attack to nothing more. That was until a pivotal point in the match, when experienced Schalke keeper Ralph Fährmann had to be substituted just after the half hour mark due to an injury he had sustained to his abdomen. His replacement was Michael Langer who, even at the age of 36, was only making the third Bundesliga appearance of his career and within ten minutes he faced a shot that he could not deal with. However, it was far from his error that led to the goal being conceded. A number of Schalke players seemed to almost be willing the opposition attackers to take the ball off them as they played it around precariously inside their own half. Eventually, it was Benjamin Stambouli who gave the ball away after a poor touch and right into the path of the ever-dangerous Jadon Sancho, who did not need asking twice to strike at goal from just inside the box. He found the top corner coolly to put Dortmund ahead in the derby and from there they did not look back. Just three minutes later and a wondrous Zlatan Ibrahimovic-esque volley from fellow Scandinavian forward Erling Haaland doubled the visitors’ lead. A couple of goals was a nice cushion, but they did not sit back on it in the second half. Marco Reus set up Rapha Guerreiro for a third on the hour mark and Haaland showed us that he is the complete striker, as he notched number four from a mere yard out ten minutes before the end. The Norwegian’s brace summed up his time at Dortmund so far, with both goals so admired for such a young forward, demonstrating first his absolute natural finishing ability, but secondly an impressive sense of opportunity needed in all good strikers to get into the right positions at the right times.
Dortmund’s win sees them looking to climb back into the European spots in the table, while they condemned their local rivals Schalke to yet another defeat this campaign and the threat of a surprise relegation is all too eminent for such a prestigious club.
Hoffenheim 4-0 Werder Bremen
After a Europa League draw that felt like a loss for Hoffenheim against Norwegian outfit Molde on Thursday, the home side were desperate to get a good result back in the Bundesliga this weekend, if only to put them in the right frame of mind for the second leg in Europe. It could have been easy for Hoffenheim to crumble against Werder with the all the pressure they would have had on them after throwing away a two goal to Molde, and also with Munas Dabbur missing a penalty at 3-1. However, the team that Werder faced was one that was focused at both ends of the pitch and their clinical nature in front of goal was what ultimately put a rather sensational look on the final score.
After last week’s plethora of chances missed against Borussia Dortmund, Ihlas Bebou was in more of a mood for taking chances in this contest. He did eventually score in the second half against Dortmund, but he required several prior opportunities to get in the groove. He must have still been in it a week later, however, as he scored the first chance that came to him on 26 minutes. After being played in with a great through ball, Bebou smashed into the net to put his side on their way. Hoffenheim continued strongly, ending up with twelve shots by the end of the game and tow of those were converted either side of half time. Christoph Baumgartner got the first of those two and Dabbur the second – a goal that the Israeli will certainly be pleased about. After the penalty miss in midweek, he may have felt culpable for the downturn in form for his side for the rest of that game, but with his second goal in two Bundesliga games he will go into the second leg against Molde with revenge on his mind and form to back him up. The Werder defeat was compounded in the last minute of normal time, as Georginio Rutter extended the lead to four goals and the final whistle came as a relief to the visitors.
As much as the end of the game was welcome for Bremen, the result and more so the score line came as a real shock after a successful campaign up to this point. Even after the loss, they sit in twelfth place in the table, which would certainly have satisfied the club’s hierarchy after hanging onto their top-flight status by a thread last season, ending up in the dreaded relegation play-off spot and having to survive a two-legged contest against Bundesliga 2 side Heidenheim to secure their place in the Bundesliga for the next campaign. Therefore, a loss to a European team will not worry Werder Bremen too much, but purely the number of goals they conceded highlights an area that still needs improvement.
Rest of the Round-Up
Arminia Bielefeld 0-3 Wolfsburg
A comprehensive win for the Wolves without Wout Weghorst scoring? The Bundesliga really does serve up surprises. Despite the big Dutchman not netting one for himself, he was part of a great Wolfsburg away day performance that saw Renato Steffen star with a brace.
Borussia Mönchengladbach 1-2 Mainz
This fixture was a clear indication of the contrasting forms of the two teams. Gladbach now only have two points from their last four games and are slipping down the table at an alarming rate away from the targeted Champions League places. As for Mainz, they are embracing the challenge of Bundesliga survival and have found a timely knack of getting late goals to win them much needed points.
Freiburg 0-1 Union Berlin
Both teams could have won this one going into the game, having both had very good seasons so far, however Union dominated the game right form the start. Despite only having 35% possession, the capital side did not let their opponents into the contest and they were unfortunate not to score more than the one goal they did get through Grischa Prömel.
Köln 0-1 Stuttgart
It was the league’s tallest player who continued his fine form in front of goal for Stuttgart to deliver the win for his side against Köln. Sasa Kalajdzic, who stands at six feet and seven inches (that is one whole Peter Crouch), scored just after half time to grab his fifth goal in the last four games.
Augsburg 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
The German top tier is blessed with some of the best goalkeepers in all of Europe, nevertheless from time to time they do still make some awful mistakes and that means a bundle of comedic enjoyment for the neutrals. The unfortunate Niklas Lomb, still deputizing for the injured Lukas Hradecky, was the man to make the howler on this occasion as his miskick presented Niederlechner with a tap in and Augsburg with the lead. Luckily for the keeper, Edmond Tapsoba’s 94th minute equalizer rescued a point for Leverkusen right at the death.
Hertha Berlin 0-3 RB Leipzig
Wow! That was the only applicable response to Marcel Sabitzer’s thunderbolt on 28 minutes against Hertha – a goal that is not just in contention for Goal of the Season, but one that would take quite some beating for that honour. Leipzig defenders Mukiele and Orban made sure of the victory with second half goals, leaving the club only formed in 2009 just two points off leaders Bayern and with a real prospect of a historic first Bundesliga title.
A Few Words On… Amin Younes
This week’s primary focus may have been the Revierderby, but the match with undoubtedly major repercussions at the top of the table was the one between Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern München. Amin Younes’s performance for Eintracht really stood out for his energy and creative initiative, not to mention his peach of a strike for Frankfurt’s second goal. The midfielder, who has played five times for the German national team, returned to German football last year after a five-year absence. The former Borussia Mönchengladbach youth player found relative success with Ajax in the Netherlands over a three-year spell, however a move to play for Napoli never really saw him flourish. The Italian league is more widely occupied by intuitive attacking midfield players like Younes and, along with the Naples club’s impressive depth of squad, he found regular games hard to come by. Therefore, a loan switch back to his native Germany with Eintracht was the desired change of scenery and it seems to have benefitted him. Younes fits into the German style of play more easily, mixing his creativity with his pace, the latter being an essential attribute for any successful player in the high intensity competition that is the Bundesliga. Moreover, Frankfurt’s tendency to hit teams on the counterattack has also suited him and he links up well with the top-quality forward players around him like Daichi Kamada, André Silva and Frankfurt will hope the newly re-singed Luka Jovic too. Although Amin Younes’s current deal is not permanent, a return to Napoli at the end of the season would be surprising and an Eintracht contract may be drawn up pretty soon if his performances continue to be as good as the one seen against the champions.