Freiburg’s 3-2 win towards Wolfsburg opened matchday 14 and foreshadowed how the remainder of the matchday will go as Bayern Munich misplaced their first sport within the league this season as they misplaced 2-1 to Mainz, Bayer Leverkusen beat Augsburg to briefly transfer into second, Borussia Mönchengladbach beat Holstein Kiel whereas Union Berlin and Bochum performed out a draw.
Here’s what we learnt:
THE TITLE RACE IS BACK ON:
For a lot of this season, it seemed like Bayern Munich have been going to be handed the Bundesliga title because the groups beneath them would journey over each other, nevertheless, the tide now appears to be turning.
In the present day, Bayern misplaced their first sport within the league this season as they succumbed to a 2-1 loss to Mainz in what was one in all their worst performances of the season, however this time Jamal Musiala was unable to rescue them. On the Mewa Enviornment, Bayern dominated the ball however have been unable to power a save from Robin Zentner for a lot of the sport.
Luck was additionally towards them for as soon as this season as Mainz’s first objective got here from the ball being deflected and kindly dropped to Jae-Sung Lee to open the scoring, the Korean would then make it 2-0 on the hour mark. Bayern would give themselves hope when Leroy Sané scored in a wide-open objective within the 87th minute to make it 2-1.
Whereas Bayern have been shedding, Bayer Leverkusen continued their nice type as a 2-0 win away at Augsburg means they’re on a seven-game profitable run however most significantly the hole between them and Bayern is now solely 4 factors. Regardless of being defending champions, Leverkusen would a lot want to be the chaser than the chased as stress will start to construct on Bayern now because the honeymoon interval beneath Vincent Kompany involves an finish.
So as to add to this, Bayern’s closing sport earlier than the winter break is towards RB Leipzig. Who’ve confirmed to be a problem for Bayern over the previous couple of years, even when they aren’t at their finest.
Mainz proceed their revival:
A yr in the past, Mainz have been seventeenth within the Bundesliga desk and seemed destined for relegation. Later within the season, Bo Henriksen would then take cost and since then, Mainz have been on an upward trajectory. Twice they’ve crushed Borussia Dortmund and now they’ve additionally crushed Bayern Munich and every time they’ve deserved their wins.
On high of this, the academy stays on the coronary heart of what Mainz are reaching final season it was Brajan Gruda, this season it’s Jonathan Burkardt (who was substituted off within the first half) and Paul Nebel. Then surrounding the pair there are gamers who don’t get sufficient reward in Jae-Sung Lee and Nadiem Amiri in addition to younger expertise in Armindo Sieb (who’s on mortgage from Bayern).
Now, Mainz sit sixth within the league after profitable 4 of their final 5 video games. The final time they have been on this place was 9 years in the past.
The automated relegation locations are probably set:
Kiel misplaced 4-1 to Gladbach, whereas Bochum performed out a weird draw with Union, however the pair at the moment are 5 and eight factors off of the relegation playoff locations and each look like they’re heading in direction of the two.Bundesliga.
The pair appear to lack any high quality to have the ability to flip their conditions round. Kiel didn’t trigger any actual situation for Gladbach as we speak, whereas Bochum went all the way down to 10 males very early on in Köpenick however managed to carry on for some extent. The ending of this sport was additionally delayed as an object was thrown at Bochum keeper Patrick Drewes, which the Bochum gamers reacted by returning to the dressing room. After a prolonged delay, Bochum got here again out, with out Drewes and Philipp Hofmann enjoying in objective, however neither group made any effort to attain.
The battle for the relegation playoff additionally at present appears like it’s down to a few groups with Heidenheim, St Pauli and Hoffenheim at present battling it out.
GGFN |