Does BVB really want to become champions now?
Coach Niko Kovac still doesn’t follow up his defense chief’s declaration of war with any pithy words. While Nico Schlotterbeck had clearly stated that he wanted to win the trophy a week ago, the coach rowed back before the game like a Cambridge student on the Thames: It’s not about Bayern, it’s more about keeping an eye on the pursuers, said Kovac, and in his statement he was probably referring to what he has seen for weeks: A team that is certainly successful and has been unbeaten in 14 BL games, but often offers football to look the other way.
The table situation is becoming increasingly precarious for opponents Wolfsburg. According to coach Daniel Bauer, the approaches are good, but the team is not stable enough. It becomes particularly worrying when the necessary attitude is missing, as was the case with Mohammed Amoura, who was recently suspended because he refused to play in the B team during training. Against Borussia, the attacker returned to the first eleven and promptly had the first good chance of the game while Dortmund were still dozing.
They only woke up when Maxi Beier’s shot, deflected by Wolfsburg’s Denis Vavro, landed on the underside of the crossbar. But the standards always work for BVB: Julian Ryerson’s corner on the first post, Julian Brandt’s header – the black and yellow team went into the dressing room with a lead.
And promptly conceded the 1-1 after the restart – also by standard: free kick Maxi Arnold, header Konstantinos Koulierakis, nothing to hold on to for Gregor Kobel. This was followed by a single attack by the Wolves, who tried a lot but hit nothing except the ball twice. The fact that Serhou Guirassy took advantage of BVB’s first clear chance in the second half to score the 2-1 winner shortly before the end had a hint of Bayern duel about it. Or to put it another way: This is how you can actually become a master.
Does Bremen’s new coach Daniel Thioune get the first three-pointer?
It’s okay if you don’t understand the question. That’s what Thioune, 51, felt at his debut press conference during the week when a questioner confronted him with terms from youth language (to test whether the successor to Horst Steffen, 56, would be able to find his way in the Werder dressing room).
“Three salmon” meant three points. That would be better than a “one fish stick,” replied Thioune. But it wasn’t even that, instead he scored zero points for the debut. Bremen failed to win the eleventh game in a row and failed to score a goal for the seventh time.
Werder could have taken the lead, but Justin Njinmah was denied with an overhead kick by Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu. A few seconds later, after a Freiburg counterattack, the ball was instead in the Bremen goal.
Niklas Beste (was once at Werder, but only incidentally) had space on the right side of the penalty area, aimed into the corner and scored for the first time for the sports club. However, Bremen did not give up and were back in the game since the 52nd minute at the latest: Freiburg’s Johan Manzambi was shown the red card after he climbed onto the calf of Bremen’s Olivier Deman in a duel in the Werder penalty area.
Werder were now superior, but that even more emphasized the team’s big problem: Even under former striker Thioune, Werder doesn’t have a striker on the pitch who can reliably hit the goal. Njinmah once shot more than a meter past Atubolu alone.
Will FC Augsburg continue its good run in Mainz?
A clear no. The Bayern conquerors stumbled after two wins in a row and lost 2-0. The start of the game at FSV Mainz went badly wrong for Manuel Baum’s team: Elvis Rexhbecaj missed the ball and – at least presumably – hit Mainz’s Stefan Bell. In his 301st Bundesliga game for the 05er, the lively veteran fell heavily and screamed, and referee Patrick Ittrich promptly pointed to the spot. A longer session by the Cologne television referees produced no different result, although no real contact could be recognized, at least for the television viewer with normal vision. Nadiem Amiri didn’t let himself be put off and put the carnival club in the lead with the irritatingly colorful shirts with a confetti look. The captain’s sixth penalty goal of the season.
The seventh followed a good ten minutes before the end: This time Augsburg’s striker Anton Kade clearly came too late against Amiri and thus confirmed the cliché that attackers should leave the defensive work in their own box to the specialists. Then Amiri stepped to the point and refuted the cliché that a fouled player shouldn’t shoot a penalty. Amiri scored and got rid of the confetti jersey while celebrating. Possibly a critical greeting to the designer? He was happy to accept the yellow card for this.
Does Deniz Undav now have to let Kylian Mbappé get away?
Admittedly, the statistics are a bit special: only Real Madrid’s world-class striker has collected more goal participations (23) in Europe’s top leagues since November than Deniz Undav (22). “Take a screenshot,” said Undav when he was confronted with the numbers on Sky after the quarter-final victory in the DFB Cup in Kiel (3-0).
In VfB’s surprising 2-1 defeat at FC St. Pauli, Undav only hit the outside post with his head and the roof of the goal with a lob. For once, Hamburg were more dangerous, as they had the weakest offensive before the game with 18 goals this season (four less than Mbappé). Against VfB they not only played with convincing approaches, as is so often the case, but also with results.
In the 35th minute, the hosts attacked nicely from the left, drawing the VfB defense to the side so that right full-back Manolis Saliakas had space in the penalty area. After a low cross, he took the ball directly with the outside of his foot. It didn’t necessarily look intentional, but the ball turned into the corner of the goal.
In the second half, VfB also helped: Chris Führich flailed his arms when receiving the ball in his own penalty area, the ball jumped to his hand, there was a penalty, Daniel Sinani scored. And Jamie Leweling only managed to score the next goal.
Will Heidenheim lose touch in the bottom of the table?
After a 2-0 defeat against Hamburg, things are actually getting lonely for FCH in the lowlands of the league, because their rival St. Pauli is now four points away from the surprise coup against Stuttgart, and they are still six points away from the rescue bank. Heidenheim, the worst home team in the league, hosted HSV, bottom of the away table. Both teams didn’t do much in the first 45 minutes to get rid of these less than glorious attributes. But in the second minute of injury time, Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer put an end to the boredom and completed a fine attack with a powerful shot to make it 0-1.
Both coaches reacted to the otherwise dismal kick and brought in a total of four new players after the break. It was lucky that a supervisor found the jersey of Hamburg substitute Damion Downs. Because the US national player was initially there without a shirt. Just like Heidenheim ended up with no points: Rayan Philippe scored the decisive counterattack in the 78th minute with the score 0-2 for HSV, which climbed to eleventh place in the table.
