Bundesliga: 26th matchday – four duels and DAZN premiere

The fans of Germany’s elite league can forget about ending the 26th Bundesliga matchday with two games this weekend. Because on March 13, instead of the usual two or three games, the Bundesliga will be played in a four-pack at the end of the day. The Rhine derby between Bayer Leverkusen and 1. FC Köln (3.30 p.m.) is followed by the simultaneous games between Borussia Dortmund and Arminia Bielefeld as well as Eintracht Frankfurt and VfL Bochum (both at 5.30 p.m.). The duel between tail light Greuther Fürth and RB Leipzig (7.30 p.m.) then forms the final conclusion. But why are four games unusually played on Sunday?

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The reason is simple: At the time the DFL scheduled the match in December, four Bundesliga clubs were still represented in the Europa League: BVB, RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt. This competition usually plays its games on Thursday evenings. In order to ensure sufficient time for regeneration, the national league operations for the participants usually only continue on the following Sunday. Since, according to the rules, no teams from this quartet could duel directly, this resulted in the concentrated game schedule on the last day of the week. In return, the Friday game was canceled.

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Curious: The chasing of dates became obsolete for several reasons: Last Thursday, Bayer Leverkusen was the only player in the Europa League round of 16 (2: 3 at Atalanta Bergamo). The game between Eintracht Frankfurt and Betis Sevilla (2-1) was brought forward to Wednesday by UEFA due to a clash with FC Sevilla. RB Leipzig, which should have played against Spartak Moscow, received a bye for the quarter-finals because of the exclusion of Russian teams. Champions League relegated Borussia Dortmund made a fool of themselves in the play-offs and didn’t even qualify for the round of the top 16 teams. However, the DFL could not know this when it was scheduled.

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By the way, there will be another premiere on Sunday due to the multiple schedule: streaming service DAZN, which owns the broadcasting rights for the Sunday games, is broadcasting Bundesliga games for the first time ever in a conference. In the games taking place at the same time, BVB and Bielefeld as well as between Frankfurt and Bochum will switch back and forth.