Bundlesliga – Matchday 11 review

Article by Bundesliga Correspondent Ed Hewings

What a weekend it has been in the Bundesliga – we’ve had record breakers, shock results and a northern derby that will have people talking for weeks.

The only place to start is in the Eintracht-Stadion in Braunschweig, where Leverkusen visited the Bundesliga’s bottoms club Saturday afternoon. With the German FA putting any chance of a replay of Leverkusen’s ‘Phantom Goal’ game against Hoffenheim out of the window, this was a chance for Leverkusen to put it behind them completely. Leverkusen’s line up suggested that they had one eye on their Champions League game this week against Shaktar, with Erin Deriyok given a rare start. This was a frantic game, with 34 efforts on goal in total, shared equally between the sides. Yet it took until the 81st minute for Domi Kumbela, Braunschweig’s lone striker to force the ball home from inside the 6 yard area for the only goal of the game.

Deep into injury time, Lars Bender let his frustration at the score get the better of him and was sent off. Despite the Leverkusen stars of Kießling and Sam being introduced at the start of the second half, Sami Hyypia will be worried by their inability to break down a well disciplined and organized Braunschweig defence, especially with much tougher games on the horizon.

Meanwhile, over in Hoffenheim, Bayern were seeking to break the record of most consecutive unbeaten Bundesliga games – anything but a loss would extend it to a magnificent 36 games without defeat. Given the impact Mario Gotze had on the games against Mainz and Hertha Berlin, he was rewarded with one of his first starts under Guardiola. The game started badly for Bayern, with Hoffenheim taking the game to their more illustrious opponents – this was rewarded with Niklas Sule opening the scoring in the 34th minute, becoming Hoffenheim’s youngest ever Bundesliga goalscorer in the process, having just turned 18 last month. However this lead did not last for long, with Mandzukic finding space to fire home the equalizer just 5 minutes later. It took until the 75th minute for the game to be decided – Thomas Muller, having moved up front following the removal of Mandzukic for Kroos, found himself on the end of an excellent pass from Ribery who twisted and turned the Hoffenheim defence inside out before squaring for the World Cup 2010 Golden Boot winner. Hoffenheim pressed, but the Bayern defence, well protected by the returning Javi Martinez, held on to break the record. The question is – how long will this run continue? One senses that the only real challenge upcoming is the game at the Signal-Iduna Park against Dortmund in two weeks, although the nature of the Bundesliga means that even their game against Augsburg next week may spring a surprise.

On Sunday evening, Hannover, goalless away from home in the Bundesliga this season, visited Werder Bremen in the northern derby – and what a derby it was. The first half was one you could not take your eyes off – for starters, both teams lined up without recognized striker, employing the 4-6-0 formation – surprisingly, this did not detract from the game at all. Two dubious penalties for either side in the first 25minutes had the score at 1-1, before Cedrick Makiadi nodded in from point blank range following excellent work from Junuzovic. But three minutes later (it still isn’t half time by the way), Hiroki Sakai scored his first goal from Hannover – a 25 yard belter that bounced in off the crossbar. The second half didn’t match the first for excitement, but the finish was as fast and as frantic as you would hope from a derby match – Santiago Garcia finished off a scramble in the penalty area in the 86th minute to keep the points in Bremen.

Elsewhere, in the Friday night game, Dortmund battered Stuttgart like a cod, and despite Stuttgart taking the lead in the 13th minute, a hat-trick from Robert Lewandowski, along with goals from Sokratis, Marco Reus and Aubameyang meant Dortmund ran out 6-1 winners.

Hamburg fell to their first defeat under the tutelage of Bert van Marwijk, going down 2-0 to Borussia Monchengladbach at home – Monchengladbach continuing their excellent start to the season in 4th, two goals from the ever improving Max Kruse must surely mean he is well on the way to being on the plane to Rio come June with Joachim Low.

FC Nuremberg’s troubles continued – their excellent finish least season led to them qualifying for the Europa League, but this season they cannot buy a win for love nor money. They went down 3-0 at home to fellow strugglers Freiburg, which meant the Breisgau-Brazilianer went a point ahead of them in the relegation zone – Nuremberg are still winless this season in the league.

Schalke put their home defeat against Dortmund behind them and warmed up will in anticipation of their visit to Chelsea in the week with an excellent 2-0 victory away to Hertha Berlin – Szalai scored early in the first half, and Julian Draxler finished the game in the 94th minute.

In the SGL Arena in Augsburg, Andre Hahn scored twice early in both halves, before Choupo-Moting got one back for visiting FC Mainz. However, substitute goalkeeper, who replaced normal No.1 Heinz Muller at half time for Mainz was sent off for a frankly bizarre tackle in the 88th minute, which meant that defender Noveski took the gloves for the final 5 minutes – and made a great save from the resulting free-kick.

The final game of the weekend saw Wolfsburg see off Eintracht Frankurt 2-1 in the Commerzbank Arena, Max Arnold scoring the decisive goal in the 82nd minute.

Bayern and Dortmund sit atop the table still, with Bayern leading by 1 point, although Dortmund have a superior goal difference given their big win this weekend. Leverkusen slip 3 point back from Dortmund thanks to the defeat against Braunschweig, who still remain bottom of the table. Freiburg and Nuremberg occupy the final two basement spots.

Next week sees Leverkusen host Hamburg, with van Marwijk’s side looking to get back to winning ways, and Dortmund visit Wolfbsurg.

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