Bundesliga, Week 19: Bayern win again. Surprise!

Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1 Fortuna Düsseldorf

This season has been a disappointing one for ‘Gladbach, but they’re back in Europa League places after their win on Saturday. They got off to a brilliant start, going up by two goals in the first 14 minutes. Juanan gifted them an own goal in the 6th minute, and Patrick Hermann followed that up by finishing off a cross by Luuk de Jong. Dani Schahin converted a penalty in the 50th minute, given for a de Jong handball, but the visitors couldn’t find an equalizer.

While their title hopes are already more or less dashed, Borussia Dortmund have plenty to play for in the league. They’re no lock to secure a Champions League place, but they solidified their standing in the league on Friday, comfortably defeating Nürnburg, 3-0.

The opening minutes of the match were wild, with Robert Lewandowski missing two good chances in the early minutes. Dortmund were almost made to pay for that in the 15th minute, when Roman Weidenfeller was forced into an impressive double save to keep the score level. Just two minutes later, Timo Gebhart took down Lukasz Piszczek in the box and Jakub Blaszczykowski converted the penalty. From then on, Dortmund were in control.

I am not a Bayern Munich hater. Far from it. I actually think they’re going to win the Champions League this season, and I’ll enjoy watching them do it, because I like their style of football and ownership more than any of the English teams, Spain’s big two or Juventus. But seriously, would it hurt you guys to screw up for a few weeks?

Stuttgart are Bayern’s hosts this weekend, and they’re generally pretty poor away from home. However, they have notched wins in two of their last five road matches, against Greuther Fürth and Borussia Mönchengladbach. They’ve been downright poor in their last two road games, though, including last week’s loss to a very average Wolfsburg team. If Bayern’s going to slip up, it’s probably not going to come in this match.