VfB Stuttgart vs Bayer Leverkusen 3-4 Best match I've seen so far this season (The same like last season as the matches between those 2 were the best ones). Stuttgart looked for more than an hour as the sure winner, 3-1 ahead and it looked like that Bayer have given up hope after 3 losses in a row. When Xabi brought Boniface after they made the 1-2 to play alongside Schick and to go all in it changed. Although Bayer got the 1-3 afterwards they didn't surrender and made 3 consecutive goals (the last in typical Bayer manner by Schick in the 94th minute Stuttgart very unlucky, they played really good but it seems they simply can't win anymore against Bayer at home. But it also showed why Stuttgart has again the most players in the German team for the Nations League Quarter final this week against Italy (5 - Nübel, Mittelstädt, Leweling, Stiller, Undav) more than Bayern (4 - Kimmich, Musiala, Goretzka, Sané). And I'm pretty sure in future we'll see another VfB player in the Germany lineup - Nick Woltemade. He was brilliant again (actually he's in the U21). Bayer celebrated this win as if they've won a trophy . Yes, they reduced the gap to Bayern to 6 pts with this win but I don't think they'll catch them anymore. Anyway, great match to watch. ************ In 2.Bundesliga HSV couldn't extend the lead at the top because Köln also won 2-1 (at least not again with 1-0 ) but now with 3 pts lead to #3 spot (Paderborn) and 5pts to Kaiserslautern. Eintracht Braunschweig, though, with a very bad 1-5 loss at home against Hertha BSC. This was painful to watch. Still on the relegation playoff spot, 3 pts gap to #17 and also to #15.
Course I missed that (had a good reason though as I was attending PSG/OM). Good win for Bayer and good that the Buli can throw some good games with plenty of goals!
Actually it's Bayern Munich who is snatching the title from Bayer Leverkusen as they are the current Bundesliga Champion. But I know how you mean it and, as much as I wanted it that Bayern won't win the Bundesliga title, I don't think that they would lose 6pts compared to Bayer Leverkusen in the remaining 8 matches of the season (plus Leverkusen has to make up the +25 Goals better GD of Bayern). Nah, I don't think that Leverkusen can defend their title. They can (maybe) defend their Cup title (semi-final against 3rd tier side Arminia Bielefeld is at April 1st, April Fools ) Anyway, this weekend sadly no league matches because of international break. Germany is playing today (and Sunday) against our archrivals from Italy in the quarterfinals of the Nations League. I've discussed this already with my italian mate here, @Cassio, in the Nations League thread.
Got a bit of a conundrum for May 10th, @Dirk: Paderborn/Magdeburg or Verl/1860. The former is a massive top of the table clash between sides who could go up while the second involves my beloved Sechzig but the ground is very small and game's doesn't look that enticing. If anyone ever been to Verl, please identify yourselves!
If I had to choose between Verl vs 1860 and Paderborn vs Magdeburg I would choose HSV vs Ulm instead on May10th. (Hopefully HSV's last ever home match in the 2.Bundesliga and a big promotion party) *************************** Friday matches in 1./2.Bundesliga: #2 vs #16 Normally I'd say "No chance for Bochum" but I said the same when they played at Bayern a few weeks ago and we know how that ended #1 HSV vs #9 Elversberg: Tricky one for HSV. We've only played Elversberg 3-times because we never were in the same leagues before. We lost both away matches in Elversberg (this season 2-4 after 1-0 lead) and won our home match last season with 1-0. I'd be happy if we do it again. Elversberg can be a pain in the ass. Hopefully we haven't lost our good form over the international break #17 Ulm vs #13 Darmstadt Ulm can't afford to lose, even a draw is imo not enough.
I'll swing by the Volkspark in a couple of years. Bit far from Paris with the car but perfect stopover en route to Rostock! Not that fussed by who I go and see on May 10th, Hannover on the Sunday is the target. Looks like a great ground!
Yes. I wrote it in my previous post that Elversberg can be a pain in the ass for every team and that's what they were again. And yet we should have scored 2 goals (stats of the match shows that the xG was 1.7 for HSV and only 0.67 for Elversberg). But it was one of those days where we could've played another 2 hours with enough chances but without scoring. It was also the first 0-0 of the season when HSV was playing. In 2 hours we'll see if HSV can hold the lead in the standings when the top match: #3 Paderborn vs #2 Köln kicks off. If Köln makes its "usual voodoo", that is winning luckily with 1-0, then they take the lead. If Paderborn wins they jump to #2, 1pt behind HSV. So the best would be: A draw and Köln 1pt behind and Paderborn 3pts ************* The other 2.BL match #17 Ulm vs #13 Darmstadt 2-1. Important win for Ulm, they jump (temporarily) to the relegation playoff spot. 1.BL match #2 Bayer Leverkusen vs #16 Bochum 3-1. But I don't think that Bayern (at home vs St.Pauli) will give away points today, although they have lost Davies in the international break due to a serious injury (cruciate ligament rupture) for months (rumours are that they want to sue the Canadian Football Association because Davies had to play for Canada although he wasn't fit )
With Köln winning at Paderborn, there is a mamooth 4-pt gap between runners-up HSV & 3rd-placed but looking at the run-in it does look like it could stay that way and that Köln & HSV will clinch the automatic spots. Lautern are hosting Fortuna this evening so they could take 3rd from Paderborn. I do hope this happens though as to be brutally honest, the top tier needs bigger clubs that bring loads of fans.
Bayern seemingly won the league in February and have taken their eye off the ball. Big second half coming up. Edit* Making hard work of it but Bayern won 3-2. 83 games 77 goals 24 assists. Harry's 100th and 101st goal contribution today. He's now scored against all 19 Bundesliga teams that he has faced with Bayern.
St. Pauli scored two goals? How is that possible? Oh, it was only against Bayern. Well, that makes sense. BTW: Thanks to our Harry Kane chronologist for keeping us up to date. He's now scored against every Bundesliga team? Well, next season he'll face a "new" Bundesliga team, and he'll have a tough time scoring a goal then. edit: Kaiserslautern won yesterday evening against Düsseldorf with 3-1. Jumping to 3rd. Would be great if all 3 founder members of the 1.Bundesliga, Köln, HSV, FCK, would go up. All 3 have regular season crowds between 46.000(FCK), 50.000(Köln) and 57.000(HSV) Zuschauer | 2. Bundesliga 2024/25
Today and tomorrow we have the semi-finals in the German Cup: Arminia Bielefeld vs Bayer Leverkusen: 3rd tier Bielefeld already kicked out three 1.Bundesliga clubs in this cup season, Freiburg, Union Berlin and Werder Bremen. But I think Bayer will be too much for them even with their enthusiastic home fans at the Alm. With a win Xabi Alonso will get a new record in the Cup history. Since coming to Bayer he coached them in 10 matches for 10 wins. If he gets another one he will surpass Louis Van Gaal as Bayern coach in 2009/10! VfB Stuttgart vs RB Leipzig: Leipzig sacked Coach Marco Rose last weekend after they were falling down to 6th in the standings and even in danger to completely miss next seasons European competitions. Lots of work to do for "Head of global 'soccer'" Jürgen Klopp (and no, he won't take over as their coach ) I hope that VfB will make it to the final. Leipzig has reached enough finals in the last 6 years (4, 2W-2L). For Stuttgart it would be the first final since 2013 (losing 2-3 to Bayern)
Arminia Bielefeld: five German Cup match victories this season: all 5 played at home, none on the road. How can a major competition as this be so inequitably structured? (Why aren’t rounds 2-legged?) Is it not at least partly a farce?
It's their first Cup Final. 10 years ago they were already in a semi-final but lost that against later winner Wolfsburg with 0-4 at home Absolutely unbelievable. They could've even winning higher. Leverkusen without Florian Wirtz is only half as good. That's because Semi-professional and amateur clubs automatically gets home advantage in the draw when they play against 1./2.Bundesliga clubs (professional clubs). Absolutely ok Cup matches are never 2-legged
