Bundesliga, Week 27: Bayern clinch the title

Stuttgart continued their physical, disruptive tactics that were so effective last weekend against Borussia Dortmund on their way to a scoreless draw against Hannover 96 on Sunday. Stuttgart had the better of the opportunities and will rue not capitalizing on one of them.

Hannover are now four points back of the Europa League places in the Bundesliga. Their failure to grab points from Stuttgart is nothing short of a failure. They should’ve scored goals against this weak defense and taken all three points. Their next two matches are against Freiburg and Bayern, and it will be difficult for them to get points from the two of them.

The opportunity to maintain their lead amongst the Europa League challengers slipped away from Mainz on Saturday as Per Nilsson sandwiched a Nicolai Müller goal with two of his own to lead Nürnberg to a 2-1 victory over Mainz.

Nürnberg will look at the three points as a huge coup considering their previous predicament. Coming into the match they were on 35 points but were teetering perilously close with “relegation” form. A win against a club that’s been performing as well as Mainz has in recent weeks will be a boost to the club’s confidence down the stretch. They won’t qualify for Europe, but Der Club should find themselves safe with a few games left.

Borussia Dortmund needed a big second half comeback to beat relegation-threatened Augsburg 4-2 on Saturday. Jürgen Klopp made seven changes to his lineup from BVB’s midweek Champions League match against Malaga, and it showed early. Trailing 2-1 at the half, Klopp subbed on Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski, and the two immediately went to work. Within seconds of being on the field, Lewandowski was involved in Julian Schieber’s equalizer. Die Borussen would go on to score two more goals with Lewandowski nicking on at the end.

Augsburg can’t really look at the match as “losing points”. Before the match, they would’ve gladly taken one. While they did have a halftime lead, BVB weren’t playing most of their normal starters, and Augsburg will need to quickly move on to the next one. They stuck with Markus Weinzierl through the winter break even though the club looked destined for relegation, and it has paid off. Since the start of 2013, Augsburg have picked up 15 of their 24 points. They have six matches left, and I wouldn’t rule against them finding a way to stay in the Bundesliga for another year.

Die Werkself have seen their lead over Schalke for the third spot in the league shrink to just four over recent weeks. In the last six matches, Leverkusen have accrued only eight points while Schalke have picked up fifteen. This weekend, the two sides will play in a big match at the Veltins Arena. If Schalke manage to take all three points, Leverkusen will have all of the pressure on them moving forward.

For Dieter Hecking and Wolfsburg, avoiding relegation is the number one goal. Currently, they’re sitting nine points out of the relegation playoff spot. Solidifying the defense is a good place for Wolfsburg to start this summer to get back to qualifying for Europe next season.

Freiburg pulled off a big 1-0 victory at the Imtech Arena against Hamburg on Saturday. Jonathan Schmid broke the deadlock halfway through the second half to give Freiburg their 11th win of the season. At their current pace, they’re on track for their best season since the 2000-01 campaign.

If avoiding relegation last season was Christian Streich’s big introduction to being a manager, earning a place in Europe in his first full season in charge is quite the accomplishment. With six games left and only ten points separating fourth place and eleventh place, the race for the Europa League places is as wide open as it’s ever been. Of their remaining matches, only the two against Bayern Munich and Schalke stand out as very difficult.

The Bavarian outfit have been in stunning form all season in the league, only dropping points three times, with two draws and one defeat, a record that had left the defending champions Borussia Dortmund simply unable to keep up.

It has already been a record-breaking season for the club - this is their 22nd Bundesliga title, although they may not be done there. The club still has a good opportunity to break the record for both goals scored and goals conceded. The high-scoring record in a Bundesliga season stands at 101, while Bayern have scored 79. Meanwhile, the lowest number of goals conceded is 21, while the club have only conceded 13 so far.

Hoffenheim dismissed their manager and sporting director this week, but managed to find a new lease on life in the relegation battle with a 3-0 victory over Fortuna Düsseldorf. Hoffenheim are now one point behind Augsburg for the relegation playoff place, but Augsburg have a game in hand against Borussia Dortmund tomorrow. Düsseldorf are now only six points ahead of Hoffenheim.

New manager Markus Gisdol had his work cut out for him from the start. Hoffenheim had only won two matches since the new year and were coming off of a crushing 3-0 loss to Schalke. Gisdol made a few changes to the starting eleven, and the team as a whole showed more energy and fight than they had in weeks.