Bundesliga Saturday, Week 20: Bayern Munich, Three Other Big Teams Drop Points

Borussia Dortmund is alone at the top of the Bundesliga after Saturday’s action, and they’re a full 12 points clear of fifth place. All of the teams placed second through fifth in the Bundesliga table drew their Round 20 matches on Saturday after Der BVB recorded a win on Friday. One of the other teams in European places, Werder Bremen, plays on Sunday.

Stuttgart have gotten off to a poor start in the second half of the Bundesliga season, but they’ll be thrilled with earning a road point at the BayArena. Bayer held the lead deep into the second half, but Martin Harnik rescued a point for the visitors with an 89th minute goal. Stefan Kiessling opened the scoring with a bizarre scrambling set piece goal in the 11th minute, but Julian Schreiber equalized in the 23rd minute on a short set piece.

Simon Rolfes converted a penalty in the 47th minute to give his team the lead, but Harnik found an equalizer in a fashion similar to Kiessling’s goal. This eventful game also featured one red card for each team, as Michal Kadlec and Christian Molinaro were both sent off.

With their second straight Bundesliga win, Hannover are back into the race for European places. They’re just one point out of a Europa League spot. This game was light on chances, but Mohammed Abdellaoue converted one of them on a shot from outside the penalty area, assisted by Mame Biram Diouf.

Thomas Tuchel’s keeping his team well above the drop zone on a budget, and one of his late-window signings proved astute on Saturday. Mohamed Zidan netted early in his debut for Mainz, putting them up on a slow-starting Schalke team in the first half. Die Königsblauen played better in the second half and found one goal, scored by Chinedu Obasi, but they squandered numerous other chances and could only come away with one point.

Every point is a valuable point for Augsburg, and they’ll feel like they’ve boosted their chances to stay up with a big road point. Sebastian Langkamp scored Augsburg’s equalizer in the 72nd minute, heading in a corner.

Perhaps Gladbach were enjoying a bit of a hangover from their brilliant victories against Bayern Munich and Stuttgart? They looked nothing like themselves on Saturday and were lucky to draw with the way that they played. Marco Reus was atrocious and this game, in general, was dire.

Bayern looked extremely poor in the opening minutes of this match, leading to a deserved goal for Jacopo Sala and Hamburg in the 23rd minute. From that point forward, Bayern were the much better side, but could only find one goal. Ivica Olic was the scorer, netting on a corner kick in the 71st minute after a scramble and some bad set piece defending. Both teams had more opportunities to score, but neither team brought their finishing boots to the game.