Bundesliga, Week 8: Stuttgart upset Hamburg on Sunday

Schalke finally reversed the last two seasons and won their first Revierderby since the 2009-2010 season. The win kept them seven points behind Bayern Munich and five points ahead of Borussia Dortmund.

It was one of Schalke’s best performances in a long while as they survived to a 2-1 win. There were moments throughout the second half that you felt like, “This is the moment where Schalke collapse, and BVB come back.” That moment never came, though.

Hamburg failed in their bid to move to 4th in the table after a 1-0 loss at home against Stuttgart. With the three points, Stuttgart jump out of the relegation zone and into 12th place.

Stuttgart came out of the blocks quickly knowing that they were now in the relegation zone after the morning’s result. Martin Harnik broke out into a one on one with Rene Adler after just two minutes, but he put his shot right into the chest of the goalkeeper for an easy save. It’s not hard to imagine that last season’s Harnik scores that goal easily, and that is one of the reasons for Stuttgart’s struggles this season.

Nürnberg and Augsburg conspired to play a scoreless draw to the dismay of supporters and neutrals alike. However, Augsburg will take the point, because it takes them out of the relegation zone at least until Stuttgart plays Hamburg today.

For all of the ball they saw throughout the first half, Nürnberg struggled to put Mohamed Amsif in the Augsburg under threat. In fact, the better chances probably fell to the feet of Augsburg as they kept their shape and defended well.

Bayer Leverkusen gave up a halftime lead and needed a goal just before the end of the half to salvage a 2-2 draw with Mainz.

It looked like a scoreless first half was on the cards, but Stefan Kießling snuck in and headed in a goal in the 43rd minute. Daniel Carvajal’s pass was perfect, and Kießling headed it past Christian Wetklo to make it 1-0.

Eintracht Frankfurt won impressively over Hannover to remain five points back of leaders Bayern Munich. Even with the loss, Hannover remain on 11 points in a European place.

Frankfurt made things difficult for Hannover, and the visitors didn’t look comfortable on the ball throughout the first half. Hannover managed to pull a goal back just after halftime when Mohammed Abdellaoue beat everyone to the ball to poke home a cross from Lars Stindl.

Wolfsburg are rooted to the bottom of the league table after a 2-0 defeat to Freiburg in the Volkswagen Arena. The loss is Wolfsburg’s fourth straight, and they have yet to win at home this season.

Wolfsburg offered nothing in attack, and Freiburg were awarded with their second goal just before the final whistle. Jonathan Schmid found Julian Schuster, and the midfielder beat Benaglio to make it 2-0.

Bayern Munich crushed Fortuna Düsseldorf 5-0 to remain perfect through their first eight matches. Coupled with Borussia Dortmund’s loss to Schalke in the Revierderby, Bayern are now 12 points clear of the defending champions.

Just when it appeared that Düsseldorf was going to escape with only a 3-0 loss, Bayern hammered in two goals within a minute at the end of the match. Müller scored in the 86th minute on a cross by David Alaba, and Rafinha would score a minute later to make it 5-0 and complete the route.

Schalke picked up a massive victory and three points in the first Revierderby of the season with a 2-1 victory away to Borussia Dortmund.

The rest of the first half would play out with neither side really getting a great scoring opportunity. Schalke looked better throughout the half with crisper passing and a more coherent attack. BVB finally started to find their feet as the half came to a conclusion, but they weren’t able to really test Lars Unnerstall.

The latest edition of the Revierderby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 is upon us. Both teams are dealing with injuries, but there’s no doubt Dortmund have the worst of it at the moment with two key attacking players unavailable for selection today.

Defender Mats Hummels has overcome injury doubts to start at the back for Dortmund, but this is a team still missing several key players including Mario Götze and Jakub Blaszczykowski. Marcel Schmelzer and Ilkay Gündogan were both unable to recover enough to make the bench.

The formerly ultra-competitive Revierderby has become slightly less interesting in recent years with Borussia Dortmund’s resurgence. Schalke 04 are now clearly second best, but with Dortmund’s recent average form and their slew of absences, the Königsblauen might have a chance to pull out a big result on Saturday.

Schalke come into the derby in good form, having avoided defeat against all of their opponents except for Bayern Munich. They recorded an impressive 3-0 victory over Wolfsburg before the international break, but their previous league match was a 2-2 draw against Fortuna Düsseldorf in which they threw away a lead. Dortmund were not at their best in their last match, a 1-1 draw against Hannover, but there’s hardly any shame in that. They streamrolled Borussia Mönchengladbach in their previous match, winning 5-0.

Greuther Fürth came from behind three times, including a goal in stoppage time, to earn a huge point on the road against Hoffenheim in a 3-3 draw.

Fürth nearly jumped out to a 1-0 after five minutes. Sercan Sararer played a nice through ball to Edu. The forward on loan from Schalke split Marvin Compper and Matthieu Delpierre, but his first touch was poor and brought him too wide. He turned to shoot and sent the ball into the crowd.

The international break has ended (I spent the last several days in Kansas City watching the US Men’s National team. What were you doing?), and the Bundesliga is the first major European league to kick things off with Friday’s Hoffenheim and Greuther Fürth match. However, one of Europe’s biggest rivalries take place on Saturday when Schalke travel to Borussia Dortmund in the 141st Revierderby.

Hoffenheim vs Greuther Fürth - 20:30 CET / 2:30 PM EDT