Bundesliga, Week 21: Bayern smash hapless Schalke, Hamburg down BVB

Freiburg grabbed a late goal to edge Fortuna Düsseldorf 1-0 on Sunday. The win moves Freiburg all the way up to fifth in the table, level on points with Mainz and Hamburg. Düsseldorf remain on 24 points, eight clear of the drop zone.

Max Kruse had the first chance of the match after a quarter hour. The forward latched onto a pass from Jonathan Schmid, but he saw his shit clang off the post. Their next opportunity came just before the half. Fabian Giefer denied Johannes Flum’s shot, and Cedrick Makiadi’s shot was wide of the goal.

Despite going a man down in the first half, Mainz held on for a point on the road against Augsburg in a 1-1 draw. Augsburg are unbeaten in four and have picked up six points in those matches. Mainz are up to fifth in the table and are just six points out of a Champions League place.

Mainz did well early by putting pressure on the Augsburg back line. Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker deflected a shot from Adam Szalai and was saved by Alex Manninger from an own goal. Shawn Parker thought he put Mainz on top halfway through the first half, but he was ruled offside.

Bayern Munich pushed their lead atop the Bundesliga standings to 15 points after a 4-0 thrashing of a decimated Schalke squad. Their 54 points is the most ever after 21 games in the history of the Bundesliga.

Stuttgart’s downward slide continued on Saturday with a 4-1 loss against Werder Bremen. This was Stuttgart’s fourth loss in a row since the winter break restart.

Martin Harnik nearly equalized twice in the dying moments of the first half, but Sebastian Mielitz blocked his first header while the second went over the crossbar. They did find their equalizer just after the restart. Christian Gentner’s shot was blocked, but Ibrahima Traore scored on the rebound.

Wolfsburg continued Greuther Fürth’s home winless streak after a 1-0 victory. While the club’s first season in the Bundesliga was always going to be difficult, not being able to give the home supporters a victory is demoralizing.

The visitors came close to opening the scoring after ten minutes, but Diego’s shot struck the crossbar. A few minutes later, Diego started Wolfsburg’s scoring opportunity. The midfielder passed to Vieirinha who crossed the ball into Bas Dost. The Dutch forward knocked it past Wolfgang Hesl for the 1-0 lead.

Hoffenheim came close to equalizing on two different occasions through Tobias Weis. Eugen Polanski sent him through one on one with Ron-Robert Zieler, but the goalkeeper was up to the challenge and denied him. Zieler stopped Weis again a few minutes later, this time a shot from outside the box.

Hannover has had a rather poor restart since the winter break losing two of three and conceding eight goals in those matches. The three points puts them on 29 and just one behind Mainz for the final Europa League place. Hoffenheim remain in 16th place, eight points from getting out of the relegation zone. They have won only once in their last eleven matches.

Eintracht Frankfurt let the opportunity to pull themselves level on points with Borussia Dortmund slide past after a scoreless draw with Nürnberg. The point, however, moves Frankfurt to 37 points and keeps them in fourth place, while Nürnberg now sit on 25 points, nine out of the relegation zone.

The first half saw both sides exchanging shots and testing goalkeepers. Raphael Schäfer was called upon to stop a Takashi Inui shot after 10 minutes. Frankfurt’s Kevin Trapp came up big a few minutes later to stop a shot from Mike Frantz. Trapp was big again a little later to keep out Tomas Pekhart. Ten minutes later, Pekhart thought his shot was going in the corner, but Trapp got down to knock it away.

Hamburg walked away from the Westfalenstadion with a 4-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund. The loss is by far the worst suffered by BVB this season.

The visitors took the lead in the 26th minute. Heung-Min Son beat Mats Hummels before ripping a left footed shot that went in off the far post. A few minutes later, disaster struck for BVB. Lewandowski was sent off for a rash challenge on Per Skjelbred. The momentum was heavily swinging Hamburg’s way, but BVB kept fighting. They thought they equalized just before the half, but Marco Reus was ruled offside.

Borussia Mönchengladbach prevented Bayer Leverkusen from retaking second in the Bundesliga with a late equalizer in a thrilling 3-3 match at Borussia Park.

Leverkusen were the more attacking side early. Stefan Kießling was denied a penalty after a hard tackle by Martin Stranzl, and they had an Andre Schürrle goal ruled out due to offside. Just before halftime, Stranzl would be the first to find the back of the net. Håvard Nordtveit sent in a corner, and Stranzl bundled it into the Leverkusen goal with his shoulder to give Gladbach a 1-0 lead.

Borussia Dortmund vs Hamburg - 15:30 CET / 9:30 AM ET

Borussia Dortmund have been flying since returning from the winter break with three wins from three matches. They’ve outscored their opponents 11 to 2 in those matches. While Hamburg are currently comfortable midtable, it’s tough to see how they can come away from Westfalenstadion with a victory. It doesn’t seem like you can stop Marco Reus, Mario Götze, Jakub Blaszczykowski, and Robert Lewandowski. Hamburg’s midfield will need to put pressure on the ball often to keep BVB’s attack from running at them full sprint.

Prediction: Borussia Dortmund 3 - 1 Hamburg

Greuther Fürth vs Wolfsburg - 15:30 CET / 9:30 AM ET

Greuther Fürth were on the receiving ends of lopsided matches against Bayern Munich and Mainz before traveling to Schalke last weekend. They shocked us all when they added to Schalke’s misery with a 2-1 victory. Can they repeat that again versus Wolfsburg or will they fall back into the trap that has ensnared them all season long? The Wolves have been struggling again this season, and it remains to be seen if Dieter Hecking will find a way to move them up to midtable safety in the next few weeks. Since transferring into the club in January, Ivan Perisic has performed well. Being allowed the freedom and time on the pitch that wasn’t afforded to him at Borussia Dortmund, the Croatian has two goals to his name and will be a significant piece for the club moving forward.

Prediction: Greuther Fürth 0 - 2 Wolfsburg