Bundesliga Wrap, Week 16: Bayern Munich finish calendar year unbeaten
Bayern Munich have finished 2013 as the first Bundesliga club to ever finish a calendar year unbeaten.
Lennart Preiss
Hertha Berlin 3-2 Werder Bremen
Saturday, December 14
Bayern Munich 3-1 Hamburg
Bayern Munich clinched the autumn "championship" and finished 2013 unbeaten in the Bundesliga with a 3-1 victory over Hamburg. Hamburg nearly survived to the halftime whistle with the match scoreless, but Mario Mandzukic wasn't prepared to let that happen. Rafinha crossed the ball into the middle to the Croatian, and he headed it past Jaroslav Drobny for the 1-0 advantage heading into halftime. Mario Götze added Bayern's second with a beautiful turn after bringing the ball down out of the air without letting it touch the ground. Pierre Michel Lasogga pulled one back for Hamburg, but substitute Xherdan Shaqiri restored Bayern's two goal lead and helped Bayern take all three points.
Hannover 3-3 Nürnberg
Nürnberg still have yet to win a game in the Bundesliga this season after throwing away a 3-0 halftime lead to end with a 3-3 draw. Adam Hlousek opened the scoring for Nürnberg with a distance shot that deflected off of Hiroki Sakai before beating Ron-Robert Zieler for the lead. Der Club then scored twice in three minutes through Josip Drmic and Per Nilsson to make it 3-0 before halftime. Hannover roared back to life in the second half and pulled one back in the 60th minute when Leonardo Bittencourt knocked in Szabolcs Huszti's cross. Mame Biram Diouf powered Hannover to a share of the spoils with a late brace to keep Nürnberg rooted to 17th with zero wins on the season.
Hoffenheim 2-2 Borussia Dortmund
Hoffenheim jumped out to a two goal lead before surrendering it to share the points with Borussia Dortmund. Sven Schipplock opened the scoring for Hoffenheim by lifting the ball over the head of Mitch Langerak for the 1-0 lead. Hoffenheim began to push for a second, and Kevin Volland delivered with a low shot in the corner. BVB knew they needed a goal before the half, and it was a Hoffenheim mistake that gave it to them. Jens Grahl dropped a corner, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was there to poke it in the goal to pull one back for BVB. The second half was almost all BVB, and they probably will regret not finding a way to win the match. They did, however, get an equalizer off the boot of Lukasz Piszczek after his initial header was saved. BVB are now twelve points behind leaders Bayern Munich.
Mainz 0-0 Borussia Mönchengbladbach
Borussia Mönchengladbach will have left Mainz knowing that they should’ve taken all three points and jumped Borussia Dortmund in the table for 3rd place. The best chance of the match fell to the foot of Max Kruse with a quarter of an hour left, but he was unable to put his shot on target and squandered any hopes for all three points.
Augsburg 4-1 Eintracht Braunschweig
Augsburg put on a dominant performance to move up to 23 points and keep Eintracht Braunschweig firmly rooted to the bottom of the table with a 4-1 victory on Saturday. This was the first time in their history that Augsburg had scored four goals. Paul Verhaegh opened the scoring in the first half with a “no doubter” from the penalty spot. Andre Hahn grabbed two more before the halftime whistle to give Augsburg a 3-0 lead. Torsten Oehrl volleyed Braunschweig onto the scoreboard just after the restart, but Halil Altintop scored late in the half to put the match out of reach for Braunschweig.
Wolfsburg 3-1 Stuttgart
Wolfsburg pulled within three points of Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengadbach for the 3rd “guaranteed” spot in next season’s Champions League with a big 3-1 victory over Stuttgart. Midway through the first half, Ricardo Rodriguez’s free kick found it’s way into the back of the net to give Die Wölfe the 1-0 lead. Wolfsburg scored just after the break on another free kick. This time, Diego’s kick was deflected by Christian Gentner and beat Sven Ulreich. Seventeen year old Timo Werner gave Stuttgart hope by quickly pulling one back. Stuttgart looked like they were going to pull a goal back, but they missed several opportunities to pull level. Ivan Perisic made them pay for their misses by beating Ulreich and taking all three points for the hosts.
Sunday, December 15
Schalke 2-0 Freiburg
This was a great weekend for Schalke as they pulled back within five points of a Champions league spot after they beat Freiburg 2-0. Even better news for Die Königsblauen might be the fact that Kyriakos Papadopoulos finally returned to the pitch after a year off due to injury. They started to break down the Freiburg defense more regular as the first half went along, but their opener came from a hilariously bad own goal. Nicolas Höfler headed a Jefferson Farfan corner kick into his own net. Farfan finally made it 2-0 in the second half when Max Meyer was fouled in the area, and the Peruvian converted the penalty.
Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Bayer Leverkusen failed to put some big distance between themselves and third place Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach after losing to Eintracht Frankfurt at home. Frankfurt showed no fear of their opponents, but Leverkusen looked the more dominant side for majority of the match. However, Frankfurt scored first when Marco Russ out-jumped Philipp Wollscheid to head the ball past Bernd Leno. Giulio Donati nearly equalized a couple of minutes later, but Kevin Trapp was there to make the save. Frankfurt should’ve made it 2-0, but Leno saved Joselu’s penalty in the final minutes.
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