Round 16 Bundesliga wrap up: Bayern Dominant Again
By John Harbeck
Each match week, I want to have a quick wrap up of those teams that are either around the table with Borussia Dortmund or are rivals. This would be a good way for fans of only BVB to keep up with the Bundesliga as a whole and to also know some names for the biggest upcoming clashes. While Borussia Dortmund is still in the Champions League I’ll also provide a weekly update on how their drawn opposition fares each week. So sit back and enjoy: Round 16 Bundesliga wrap up: Bayern Dominant Again.
1.) Bayern Munich: 39 points
2.) RB Leipzig: 36 points
3.) Hertha Berlin: 30 points
4.) Eintracht Frankfurt: 29 points
5.) Hoffenheim: 28 points
6.) Borussia Dortmund: 27 points
7.) FC Koln: 25 points
8.) SC Freiburg: 23 points
11.) Schalke: a laughable 18 points
The big matchup of the week was, of course, Bayern Munich against RB Leipzig. Despite the early success of Bundesliga newcomers Leipzig, they were handled quite easily away against Bayern Munich. A fun stat that was bandied about on Twitter was that over the last five years, Leipzig has a higher net transfer spend than Bayern Munich. Take that for what it is worth as the monsters of the Bundesliga are seemingly known for having deep pockets.
The match was a not-at-all close 3-0 victory for Bayern Munich. As you would expect from such a lopsided win, much of the Bayern Munich team excelled, but Thiago Alcantara was the star of the show. He completed 86% of his passes, set up four key passes and completed five dribbles not to mention a goal and assist according to whoscored.com. With Thomas Muller on the sideline, Bayern Munich showed they have plenty of depth to defeat even the top Bundesliga sides without him.
Both Hertha Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt took care of business at home in 2-0 and 3-0 wins respectively.
Eintracht Frankfurt took on Mainz and following an early 1-0 goal by Branimir Hrgota, had the rest of the match soiled by a Mainz red card. It is always difficult to judge a match when a red card is shown early and this one was after only 53 minutes. Before the red card, Mainz had the majority of the chances and unfortunately that all dried up.
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Hertha Berlin predictably took care of business against bottom of the table Darmstadt at home. The star of the show was marauding left back Marvin Plattenhardt who struck for a goal and added an assist. The Berlin defense was good enough that they didn’t concede a single shot on net.
Hoffenheim, on the other hand, struggled to a disappointing 1-1 draw with 15th placed Werder Bremen. With that being said, Hoffenheim once again was good enough to extend their magical unbeaten run and still have yet to lose this season. Sandro Wagner was the scorer for Hoffenheim, moving his tally up to nine Bundesliga goals this year.
A complete Borussia Dortmund recap can be found here.
FC Koln picked up a valuable point against Bayern Leverkusen to stay in the hunt for Europe. Despite Leverkusen having the better of the play, Koln did just enough to take away the draw and remain in 7th place. The best player for Koln on the day was Frederik Sorensen who as a member of the three-man backline snuffed out many dangerous Leverkusen attacks.
SC Freiburg is last in their important win away to Ingolstadt 2-1. Much like Koln, Freiburg didn’t have the better day, but they snuck away with the win. Florian Niederlechner had himself a day bagging both goals for Freiburg as they continue their climb up the table.
Finally, Benfica played today in Portugal against Rio Ave and won what appeared to be a feisty match 2-1. Benfica’s man of the match Pizzi was sent off in the final minutes with his second yellow, but before that he scored and chipped in an assist. The win for Benfica moves them four points clear of second-placed FC Porto.
I hope you enjoyed my first Bundesliga wrap around. Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see any changes.