Bundesliga schedule, scores and results from Week 8

Borussia Mönchengladbach are the top four contender with the toughest game this weekend, as they travel to Hannover on Saturday. As usual, Hannover are a solid, if unspectacular team with an excellent home record. They’ve lost three of their last four, but all of those games came on the road.

There’s a lot of time left for Dortmund to climb up the Bundesliga table, but they’re getting close to a situation where they can’t really afford to rest their best team in Bundesliga games to keep them fresh for the Champions League. They’re already 10 points behind Bayern Munich, while they have two wins in their pocket in Europe, so expect to see Jürgen Klopp’s best side against Köln on Saturday.

Here’s a listing of this week’s television matches, which turns out to be a pretty solid selection. No Borussia Dortmund or Bayer Leverkusen, however.

Saturday, 9:30 a.m ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada)

As it turns out, long-time manager Thomas Schaaf was not the problem at Werder Bremen. He was let go after 14 years on the job back in 2013, and his replacement Robin Dutt hasn’t turned things around. They’re bottom of the table, tied for the worst goal differential, and they’ll probably exit Round 8 with the worst goal differential on their own after a trip to Bayern Munich.

Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 1 (U.K.)

This game marks the debut of new Schalke coach Roberto Di Matteo, who has a pretty tough task in front of him. Between their long injury list and odd transfer policy, Die Königsblauen have an unbalanced squad to go along with their negative goal differential, and they’re sitting in the bottom half of the table. Hertha haven’t been impressive this season, though, and Schalke will be favorites at home, despite missing three of their top four central defenders.

Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 2 (U.K.)

It feels like a relegation six-pointer, but Hoffenheim are, stunningly, nowhere near the bottom of the table. They’re one of only three unbeatens remaining in the Bundesliga, and even more surprisingly, they have the joint third-best defensive record in the league. They’re also pulling this off without star Kevin Volland having scored this year. They should win this game against a poor Hamburg team, but nothing about Hoffenheim makes sense, so they’ll probably pick this spot to lose for the first time this year.

Sunday, 11:30 a.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 1 (U.K.)

Paderborn’s dream start to the season is over, and they’re down in eighth after failing to win for three consecutive games. Eintracht’s dream start is still rolling, however -- they’re fifth, they’ve won two straight and they’ve only lost once this season. Their young forward duo of Lucas Piazon and Haris Seferović looks excellent, and should be able to score on Paderborn.

Schedule and results