After another great weekend of Bundesliga action Bayern’s lead at the top of the table was cut to seven points when they had to settle for a 1-1 draw away to Champions League-chasing Hoffenheim, while second-placed Borussia Dortmund ground out a 1-0 win at home to Bielefeld.
We previewed the Hoffenheim/Bayern match here at SBOTOP and confidently predicted a game with fewer than four goals, and so it was; but it was still a hugely entertaining match. TSG’s young striker Christoph Baumgarter gave the hosts a lead on the half hour, beating Manuel Neuer at the far post when he slid in to meet David Raum’s cross. But, after Nicklas Sule came close on 38 minutes and Thomas Muller had a goal chalked off for offside, Bayern were level on the stroke of half time; and guess who got it?
Yep; when Joshua Kimmich swung in a corner, deep into first half injury time, Robert Lewandowski was there to head home as Oliver Baumann clutched at thin air. The Hoffenehim stopper had been excellent throughout, but he couldn’t keep his clean sheet until the break. Lewandowski’s header was his 29th league goal of the season; the lethal Pole just keeps on getting better and better. In the second half Baumann made a brilliant save to deny Leroy Sane who later saw another effort bounce back off the woodwork. TSG collected a deserved point, which saw them drop to fifth but still in with a great chance of making a top four finish.
So what else is happening in the German top flight? Let’s take a look at the Bundesliga 2022 news hot off the press.
Borussia Dortmund hanging in there
BVB cut the gap to Bayern by two points thanks to a narrow win against relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld. Die Schwarzgelben took an early lead when Maris Wolf scored on 20 minutes. Bielefeld midfielder Sebastian Vasilladis tripped Mahmoud in a dangerous position on the right wing; and when Thorgan Hazard pinged the free-kick into the six-yard box Wolf was there to convert.
Dortmund thought they had a penalty when Hazard’s shot was blocked by Robin Hack, seemingly with his arm, but VAR intervened to save the visitors. Donyell Malen hit the crossbar and Gio Reyna twice came close in the second half, but the second goal wouldn’t come and the hosts became edgy as Bielefeld threw men forward and Fabian Klos had a last gasp header saved.
The very latest Bundesliga 2022 betting odds still insist the title is heading to Bavaria once more, but BVB are hanging in there, seven points adrift and with a game in hand.
Leverkusen into data processing
Bayer Leverkusen have been enjoying another good campaign and the recruitment team has been working hard to keep the club in the top four, following the departure of the brilliant Kai Havertz to Chelsea in 2020. Data processing and monitoring has been a key part of football in recent seasons as head coaches will see no stone unturned in their quest to have the right players in their squads. Bayer’s Sporting Director Simon Rolfes is into the data and he says the study of facts and figures helped the club to recruit forward Moussa Diaby from Paris Saint-Germain.
“It was not luck that we scouted him and he is very fast,” says Rolfes. “We search for players who are very fast and data is a key part of that.”
Leverkusen were on a collision course with FC Bayern in their last league outing and emerged with a very creditable 1-1 draw as Diaby stretched the champions’ defence with his pace and attacking ambition. But this weekend it wasn’t Diaby’s day as Bayer came crashing back down to earth, losing at home to struggling Cologne. Die Werkself dominated possession and the shot count by 15 to six; but midway through the second half Kingsley Schindler took a pass from Dejan Ljubicic and smashed his shot into the top right corner to take all three points.
Leverkusen stay third in the Bundesliga table while Cologne move up into European contention in seventh.
German teams in Europe
Three of the Bundesliga’s strongest sides are still in European competition and all three have chances to go deeper into their competitions.
Next Thursday Bayer Leverkusen will host Atalanta and Eintracht Frankfurt welcome Real Betis, with both ties on a knife-edge. Bayer lost 3-2 in their away leg to La Dea, but it was Diaby who nicked a late goal to keep Die Werkself well in the tie. Frankfurt already have their noses in front having beaten La Liga’s Real Betis 2-1 in Spain. FC Bayern are already through to the Champions League quarter-finals after a brutal 7-1 destruction of Red Bull Salzburg at the Allianz Arena.
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