SC Freiburg – Borussia Dortmund 2: 1 (0: 0), Tore: 1:0 Jeong (49. Minute), 2:0 Schmid (52.), 2:1 Moukoko (76.)
In Freiburg they remembered their beginnings in the Bundesliga this week, one can understand that, as the game against BVB was the 700th first division game in the club’s history. The beach chair from Volker Finke, the “Breisgau-Brazilians”, the Christian Streich era – they celebrated their down-to-earth attitude at the sports club. And something else promised Konstanz recently: that duels with BVB did not necessarily end well for Freiburg. 19 times there was no win against Dortmund. And this time?
This time it was 2021 and against Borussia – as so often this season – a few bright moments in the Black Forest fog were enough to crack the negative series. Dortmund played nicely, had chances through Emre Can, Erling Haaland or Julian Brandt, but against the systematic determination of the SC BVB seemed too lax too often. Vincenzo Grifo was allowed to wag around with space in front of the sixteenth twice, twice all of Dortmund, including keeper Marwin Hitz, just watched (by the way, Joachim Löw also watched – he saw one or the other good-humored Höfler and Höler on Freiburg’s side).
The Korean Woo-Yeong Jeong made it 1-0 with a clever left-footed shot, and Jonathan Schmid made it 2-0 shortly afterwards from the other side. And if you want to know why BVB should try to find a new keeper (Leipzig’s Gulasci? Benficas Vlachodimos?), The latter goal is particularly recommended – Hitz probably speculated on a cross and then left the shot between himself and the near post fly through. The connection through Youssoufa Moukoko’s second Bundesliga club brought a brief shimmer, but not more.
Nevertheless, licensed player boss Sebastian Kehl had before the game Sky explains: “We are totally happy with the team, we have a good mix.” The Freiburg team, whose squad costs a fraction of what BVB invests, proved that it takes more than that. But you know that in Breisgau. They are doing well with their role. Recently also against BVB, which is losing sight of the Champions League more and more.
FC Augsburg – VfL Wolfsburg 0: 2 (0: 1), Tore: 0:1 Weghorst (38.), 0:2 Baku (59.)
Heiko Herrlich has been the coach of FC Augsburg for almost a year – and yet he celebrated a premiere against VfL Wolfsburg on Saturday. As the coach in charge, he met VfL for the third time – but for the first time he also saw the game in the stadium. Because last season he was in corona quarantine for the game and in the first leg he was in the hospital after a pneumothorax.
At his premiere, however, he had to watch the Dutchman Wout Weghorst meet. He already scored his 14th goal of the season: After a strong through pass from Yannick Gerhardt, Weghorst chipped the ball over the Augsburg goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz into the goal (38th). And in the second half, Wolfsburg picked up exactly where they left off: After Weghorst’s unsuccessful conclusion, Ridle Baku increased the second post to 2-0 (59th). After their fifth win in a row, Wolfsburg remains in the middle of the race for the Champions League places as third in the table, while Herrlich’s FCA is only five points ahead of the relegation place.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen – VfB Stuttgart 5-2 (2-0), Tore: 1: 0 Demirbay (18.), 2: 0 Demirbay (31st), 2: 1 Kalajdzic (50th), 3: 1 Bailey (56th), 4: 1 Wirtz (68th), 4: 2 Kalajdzic (77th), 5: 2 Gray (84th)
The decisive scene of this goal festival will provide for discussion this weekend: In the 56th minute, Leon Bailey scored 3-1 in the Stuttgart penalty area for Bayer Leverkusen in the duel of the cup losers last week. But shortly before that, the ball had hit the hand of Leverkusen defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah in the distant penalty area from a short distance, the scene was checked by the video referee. If there had been a penalty, the goal would have been withdrawn and VfB would have come close to equalizing. But referee Sven Jablonski decided on goal, the game was as good as decided.
It was noticeable from the start that after two league defeats and the embarrassing DFB Cup at the fourth division club Rot-Weiss Essen, Leverkusen finally wanted to win again. They combined quite nicely through the Stuttgart defense line: Kerem Demirbay scored a brace after two of these strong matches in the first half (18./31.). VfB striker Sasa Kalajdzic scored with his seventh goal of the season to connect (50th), but then Bailey increased the lead after the controversial scene mentioned. Of course, the two teams didn’t stop scoring goals: Florian Wirtz scored 4: 1 after an outstanding counterattack, Kalajdzic shortened (77th) – and Demarai Gray, who came from Leicester City a week ago, scored his first on his debut Bundesliga goal for the 5-2 final score (84th). His Leverkusen team jump back to fourth place in the Champions League after the cup.
FC Schalke 04 – RB Leipzig 0:3 (0:1), Tore: Mukiele (45+3.), Sabitzer (73.), Orban (87.)
Schalke coach Christian Gross brought Arsenal’s new signing Shkodran Mustafi from the start – although his corona quarantine (he traveled from the United Kingdom) only ended a few hours before the game. The 2014 World Champion had never trained with the team whose defense he was now part of. Gross said he was relying on his “great international experience”. It was a risk, however, and it failed. Mustafi made the decisive mistake at Leipzig 0-1 – Nordi Mukiele headed a head because he easily shook off guard Mustafi.
Before that, Schalke gave the favorite a decent fight, was low, was poisonous in the duels. Striker Mark Uth had to go down injured after 39 minutes, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar continued to have calf problems, he wasn’t in the squad at all. Leipzig missed the second goal several times in the second half, the best chance for Schalke to equalize had Matthew Hoppe, but after RB keeper Gulacsi dropped the ball, he wanted to play a deep ball with his head and not his foot – and forgot. Sabitzer’s 2-0 and Orban’s 3-0 were then completed, as the saying goes. Schalke remains bottom of the table with eight points. 14 days left.
FSV Mainz 05 – 1. FC Union Berlin 1:0 (1:0), Goal: Niakhaté (Penalty 22)
Carnival jerseys at a time when there is no carnival? Every location has to know, in any case Moussa Niakhaté looked very colorful and very happy when he put the penalty in the 22nd minute (Nico Schlotterbeck got on Karim Onisiwo’s foot) with Helau and good luck against Andreas Luthe in goal. His shot went at the fingertips of the Union goalkeeper past the inner post and from there into the opposite corner.
On the Mainz playing field, plagued by snow and rain, a game developed that did justice to the field. Few highlights, a lot of fighting, a lot of mud. In the second half, Schlotterbeck flew off the pitch with a yellow-red – which made it even more difficult for Union. Mainz is happy to take the three points (the second home win after the 3-2 win against Leipzig) and despite being four points behind the relegation place, they can motivate themselves to the clearly rising form since the start of coach Bo Svensson.
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