With both Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen winning their matches this weekend, the title race for the Bundesliga remains as it was. As usual, though, we’re here to keep you updated on the whole league and not just the top teams. This is how things went down.
Bundesliga winners
Heidenheim
The team that traces its roots to the year before Charlotte Brontë published Jane Eyre isn’t going down without a fight. Their massive three points at Wolfsburg took them above Bochum into 16th place, where they could save their top-flight spot in a playoff. They’re also three points behind St. Pauli in 15th, where they’d be automatically assured of safety. Watching their match against Wolfsburg, you’d think it was the Wolves who were staring at the drop, too, instead of this plucky team whose stadium seats 15,000, about the size of an average Division I college basketball arena. In their 18 decades of existence, they’ve had all of two seasons in the top tier, and they’re clawing for a third.
Mario Götze
The former scorer of a World Cup-winning goal shanked a magnificent second-half chance for Eintracht Frankfurt against 10-man Stuttgart, but he redeemed himself in the 70th minute when his shot hit the post and he pounced on the rebound to put it home for his team. The win gave the Eagles some breathing room in third place.
Borussia Dortmund
Speaking of Götze, his former club picked up a big win at home by scoring two goals off corners for a 3-1 triumph over Europe-chasing Mainz. In a season with more than its share of miserable results, the Dortmunders will happily take this.
Alassane Pléa
The Borussia Mönchengladbach striker’s goal against RB Leipzig was the only score of the match, which brought him to double figures in scoring for this season and brought his club above their opponents for fifth place in the league. Furthermore, the Frenchman saw two more of his shots hit the goalposts. Had those gone in, he would have matched his season high in the Bundesliga. There’s still plenty of time for him to do that.
Werder Bremen
They may be going nowhere in the German top flight, but their 3-0 trampling of relegation-battling Holstein Kiel is exactly what teams need to do to stay up top.
Bundesliga losers
Tobias Reichel
I didn’t like the penalty that the referee gave to TSG Hoffenheim in their match against Augsburg. Yes, the ball hit defender Jeffrey Gouweleeuw in the arm when he was in the penalty box, and yes, said arm was way out in front of him, but it was a shot that ricocheted off Gouweleeuw’s teammate Chrislain Matsima and bounced up into his arm before he could pull it out of the way. Andrej Kramarić converted the penalty kick for a draw that likely won’t have that much impact on the standings come season’s end, but I still don’t like the call.
Wolfsburg
A lifeless performance at home resulted in a 1-0 loss to Heidenheim that could have been even worse if not for some great saves by the home team’s mask-wearing Polish goalkeeper Kamil Grabara. Coach Ralph Hasenhüttl came in from Southampton precisely one year ago and saved the team from relegation, but insipid displays like this won’t help even if he has the team in mid-table safety.
Siebe van der Heyden
The St. Pauli defender had the ball taken off his feet by Jamal Musiala, which led to Bayern Munich’s opening goal finished by Harry Kane. That score wasn’t the sole reason for St. Pauli’s 3-2 loss at the Allianz Arena, but the Belgian player did emerge from that with enough egg to make an Eiersalat on his face.
Freiburg
Had the Breisgau team won at home, they would have drawn level on points with Mainz in fourth place. Instead, their entire defense lost track of Andrej Ilić and let Union Berlin escape with a valuable win to take the visitors five points clear of the relegation playoff place. It was the sort of game that contending teams lock down, but with three draws and a loss in their last four matches, Freiburg increasingly looks like a pretender.