The Bundesliga gets progressively less interesting with each week that passes, and it'll be entirely wrapped up for the season if Bayern Munich win on Sunday. The only other good team in the league, second-placed Borussia Mönchengladbach, host the Bavarians on Saturday. And if they fail to win, we can't even pretend there's a real Bundesliga title race anymore. It'll be completely over.
Bundesliga schedule, scores and results from Week 9
Where nothing matters, unless Borussia Mönchengladbach wins, then we can pretend something matters.
Dennis Grombkowski
But hey, relegation and European fights might be fun! The race for the remaining Champions League spots, in particular, might stay tight all season. Borussia Dortmund are all the way down in 14th, but based on their excellent performances in this year's Champions League, most expect them to at least move up the table a few spaces and challenge for fourth place, at worst. They should beat a Hannover team that's bad on the road and currently on a three-game losing streak.
Saturday's big game is one between two of last year's top four, both of which currently sit outside Champions League places. Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen are both coming off of tough games in Europe mid-week, so neither has the excuse of tiredness for failing to get a result.
As a note, Europe is setting their clocks back before North America, so ET will be five hours behind CET on Sunday, not six hours.
Werder Bremen vs. FC Köln
Friday, 2:30 p.m ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), ESPN (U.K.)
Köln are taking up the mantle as this year’s most unwatchable and irrelevant Bundesliga team. They’re probably not bad enough to get relegated, but they’re not going to be involved in games with lots of goals or push for top half. Werder, meanwhile, are a very bad team and will probably push very hard for a win in this game, only to draw 1-1. You should probably watch something else.
Borussia Dortmund vs. Hannover 96
Saturday, 9:30 a.m ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada)
While it’s not entirely clear what the hell is wrong with Borussia Dortmund, they’re clearly a pretty talented team that shouldn’t have much of a problem beating mid-to-lower-table teams at home. So even if they pick a very heavily rotated squad from the one that participated in Champions League this week and play pretty poorly, they should be able to grab three points here.
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Schalke 04
Saturday, 12:30 p.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 1 (U.K.)
Neither of these teams have any concept of how to play defense, so this might be the best game of the weekend. Get ready for the weekend’s only 5-5 draw!
(If this is a low-scoring game, I will cry.)
Wolfsburg vs. Mainz 05
Sunday, 10:30 a.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 1 (U.K.)
Don't look now, but these teams are both looking like very legitimate contenders for a Champions League place. Wolfsburg were always expected to be in the hunt with the money they've spent over the last few windows, but Mainz are a completely different story. They beat Augsburg last week, keeping their undefeated streak alive a week after drawing away to Gladbach, so there's no reason to make them serious underdogs against anyone other than Bayern.
Still, Mainz are a weird mishmash of diamonds in the rough and retread players that bigger clubs didn’t want. It has to fall apart at some point. Right?
Borussia Mönchengladbach vs. Bayern Munich
Sunday, 12:30 p.m. ET. TV: GolTV (U.S. and Canada), BT Sport 1 (U.K.)
If you’ve talked yourself into this legitimately being the biggest match in Europe this weekend, congratulations! You should stop reading right now, because I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun. Okay?
You’re still with me, so I assume you know better, or are a masochist. Bayern Munich are a lot better than Borussia Mönchengladbach. It’s possible that Gladbach pull off something cool here, which would be nice, but it’s not going to make a difference because Bayern are going to win the league by 20 points. But, uh, yay Gladbach? You tried.
Full results
Werder Bremen 0-1 FC Köln
Borussia Dortmund 0-1 Hannover 96 - Full match report here
Augsburg 2-0 Freiburg
Hoffenheim 1-0 Paderborn
Hertha Berlin 3-0 Hamburg
Eintracht Frankfurt 4-5 Stuttgart
Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Schalke 04 - Full match report here
Wolfsburg 3-0 Mainz 05
Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-0 Bayern Munich - Full match report here
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