Bundesliga current: Bielefeld wins outnumbered, Gladbach struggles – sport

Hertha BSC – Borussia Dortmund 3:2 (0:1), Goals: 0: 1 Brandt (31st), 1: 1 Belfodil (51st), 2: 1 judge (57th), 3: 1 judge (69th), 3: 2 Tigges (83rd)

It wasn’t all good in the first half, but after the break Dortmund first lost the thread and then the game. Julian Brandt had put Dortmund in the lead with a nice lob, shortly before that, the video referee ensured that a Hertha goal by Myziane Maolida was barely recognized because of passive offside. Not a convincing performance, but still in the lead, that had been seen a few times at BVB this season.

But this time Berlin seized its chance. Ishak Belfodil escaped in a sprint from Axel Witsel, who simply couldn’t keep up and scored to equalize. After Brandt and Witsel messed up the ball, Marco Richter hit a long-range shot and after another bad Brandt blunder, Richter increased to 3: 1. The badly weakened BVB, with the regular goalkeeper Kobel and the central defense around Hummels and Akanji, fell apart in this phase.

Ten minutes before the end, Stefan Tigges scored the next goal after Raphael Guerreiro’s cross – both were substituted on shortly before. The BVB ran enthusiastically and with will, but it was no longer enough to compensate. The gap to FC Bayern is now nine points. Nobody knows how Dortmund will catch up in the second half of the season.

TSG Hoffenheim – Borussia Mönchengladbach 1: 1 (0: 1), Tore: 0:1 Embolus (35.), 1:1 Akpoguma (90.+1)

It wasn’t missing much and Borussia Mönchengladbach would have ended the year with a moment of happiness. A win in Hoffenheim could have released energy for the new year in the crisis-ridden club, possibly heralding a race to catch up. But for coach Adi Hütter and his team the shock moment came in stoppage time when Hoffenheim’s Kevin Akpoguma scored the ball to make it 1-1. With the draw, the Gladbachers stopped a series of defeats, but the late equalization should feel like another setback at first.

At first, the Gladbachers couldn’t be blamed for seeing the ball as a therapeutic tool. Table 13 wanted pass for pass. work out against Hoffenheim security. Borussia shied away from the big risk, their self-confidence was shakier than a house of cards in the storm after four partly severe defeats with 17 goals conceded. The people of Hoffenheim looked benevolently at the therapy session. Like a heavyweight boxer fighting a flyweight, they first allowed the attack attempts. If it got too dangerous, they blocked the Gladbach attacks as a matter of course.

With the Gladbach defense, TSG were less squeamish. The fourth in the Bundesliga made consistent use of the gaps. In the first half it sometimes seemed as if Hoffenheim were playing alone against Gladbach keeper Yann Sommer. The Swiss held sometimes worth seeing against Georginio Rutter (12/27), sometimes dutifully from an acute angle against Kaderabek (23rd) and Raum (28th). The Gladbachers did little to counter this: When Lars Stindl appeared lonely in front of Oliver Baumann, his shot was more like a pass – this time none that boosted self-confidence.

There wasn’t much to be said for the visitors to score at the time, but then Breel Embolo came on. The Swiss skilfully heaved his beefy body into a duel with Stefan Posch, won the long ball, but shot Baumann in goal. The subsequent corner landed again at the feet of the striker – 1-0 (35th). The attacker’s fighting, not only in this scene, infected his colleagues, they acted more defensively in all parts of the team. They had to, the Hoffenheim increased the number of strokes, but a possible penalty after a handball by Ginter (37th) was not given, Rutter found his master again in summer (65th), the accuracy was missing several times. Only Akpoguma destroyed Gladbach’s hopes – which were also very fragile due to the weak offensive performance in the second half. With some distance, however, the 1: 1 can perhaps be seen as the beginning of a successful therapy.

Eintracht Frankfurt – FSV Mainz 05 1: 0 (1: 0), Tor: 1: 0 Lindström (35th)

“Lots of goals”, prophesied Oliver Glasner before the game and the Eintracht coach would have been right in the end if he had simply predicted a good game. Because that was the match between two of the best-form Bundesliga teams at the moment. Frankfurt took over the initiative, Mainz held up as usual, and it was a wonderful counterattack that let the game tip over towards Frankfurt. Makoto Hasebe, almost 38 years old, intercepted the ball, played quickly to Sebastian Rode, who quickly played steeply again and in the end Jesper Lindström pushed in – Mainz lost both duels on the way to goal.

The match also offered some high points afterwards, for example a circular shot from Ajdin Hrustić over Robin Zentner to the crossbar, plus good Mainz chances, which mostly failed due to a good Kevin Trapp. The bottom line is that the result is a clear sign of the positive development that the SGE has undergone under Glasner over the past few weeks.

RB Leipzig – Arminia Bielefeld 0: 2 (0: 0), Tore: 0: 1 Serra (57.), 0: 2 Okugawa (75.)

Of course, Domenico Tedesco had it differently. Completely different. It started when the Leipzig coach had to replace Emil Forsberg after seven minutes – the more defensive Tyler Adams came into play. RB then tried to combine the Bielefeld defense with neat possession of the ball, which did not succeed.

After a very tough first half, the events rolled over: First Janni Serra completed a Bielefeld counterattack to take the lead, then Arminia striker Fabian Klos was thrown off the field because he had stepped on Willi Orban’s leg with an open sole – and RB was outnumbered in a too ambitious game build-up from the own corner flag from the ball and conceded the 0: 2 by Masaya Okugawa.

For Arminia an important and unexpected victory in the relegation battle, for Tedesco the first real damper. “We should have won this game, in our situation it is of course extremely disappointing,” said RB goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi after the game.

SpVgg Greuther Fürth – FC Augsburg 0: 0 (0: 0)

The task was doubly difficult. Because SpVgg Greuther Fürth faced two opponents once again: On the one hand, the very real FC Augsburg was on the pitch, and on the other, the ghost from the Bundesliga past: Another defeat, and Fürth would set an inglorious record for Tasmania; Berlin had only one win and one draw with 15 defeats in the first half of 1965/66.

However, Fürth’s coach Stefan Leitl is very little interested in numbers – apart from the formation. He brought Hrgota and Nielsen back into the starting line-up and played a refreshingly aggressive 4-3-3, at least at the beginning. And in fact, Führt had to survive only a few dicey situations until half-time, for example when Augsburg’s Reece Oxford narrowly passed the box after a corner (17th) in the middle. Five minutes later, Fürth’s offensive force Timothy Tillmann came free from eight meters, but Augsburg’s Niklas Dorsch kept his foot in between.

Why there was a gaping hole in the Augsburg goal net at half-time that had to be patched up was not immediately revealed – after all, not a ball went in. Maybe the ghost was to be blamed. Augsburg now increased the number of times, with chances for Andre Hahn after a cross from Jago into the six-yard box, which forced keeper Burchert to a great reflex (48th), later by substitute Ruben Vargas (67th). But Fürth found no way into the box despite all offensive efforts, so it stayed at 0-0. A heroic double success for the troubled Fürth people: Augsburg wrested a point. And defeated the Tasmania ghost.

VfL Bochum – 1. FC Union Berlin 0: 1 (0: 1), Goal: 0: 1 Kruse (16.)

It doesn’t happen that often in football that both teams can be satisfied. But Union Berlin completed the very good first half of the season with a win at VfL Bochum, who can also celebrate a very good first half of the season. How did the victory come about? Max Kruse had one of his Max Kruse moments early in the game when he scored the 1-0 dreamily with the first chance after dropping a header with a drop kick.

After that Union didn’t have to do anything more for the game, actively dragging off some attacks, Bochum had big problems with the iron swearing – and so the game was dead for a long time. Konstantinos Stafylidis then tried it unorthodox for VfL with a long shot, in short then Elvis Rexhbecaj followed suit from a shorter distance and the two greatest chances of equalization then had Milos Pantovic, who actually had to hit the margin after Rexhbecaj’s attempt and in the 80th minute chased the ball to the lower edge of the crossbar. But as I said: Both teams can be very satisfied with themselves.

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