Despite having their coach recently sacked, Bayern Munich seems to keep steady in the title race. They got closer this weekend after leaders Borussia Monchengladbach surprisingly stumbled to get past newly-promoted Union Berlin.
Union already had surprised Borussia Dortmund before and they did it again, straying away from the relegation places. It is their first time in the German topflight and they are creating quite an impact.
Here are the highlights of this weekend.
Dusseldorf 0 x 4 Bayern Munich
Bayern was boosted after the victory in Der Klassiker and couldn’t ask for a better opponent when they visited Dusseldorf this weekend.
The Bavarians needed a win to get back on track in the league and they got the 2nd victory in a row for Hansi Flick, smashing the strugglers of Fortuna Dusseldorf 0x4.
The first goal happened just 11 minutes after the start of the game, in a weird sequence of events. Coutinho took a short corner kick into Pavard, who crossed into the box.
Lewandowski failed to hit it, but the ball gripped into the net. It was the 3rd goal for Pavard in the Bundesliga this season.
Then, another strange goal: Dusseldorf’s keeper came out of the goal too soon, leaving Muller open to square it into Tolisso, who scored into an open net.
In the second time, Gnabry got the 3rd and Phillipe Coutinho, who is on loan from Barcelona, finished the 4th, after a pass from Lewandowski.
The Polish striker for the first time this season in the Bundesliga did not put his own goal into the score. He is still top-scored with 16 goals in 12 games.
Union Berlin 2 x 0 Borussia Monchengladbach
First, they knocked down Borussia Dortmund and now Union Berlin did it again defeating the current leaders Borussia Monchengladbach. The Berliners, debutants in the Bundesliga, make it 3 straight wins for the first time and end the positive streak of Gladbach.
The visitors were close to open the scoreline first, as Hermann hit the post with a header. On the other end, Union answered with a header too, but Anthony Ujah did not fail: 1-0 within the first quarter.
Gladbach looked unrecognizable, allowing Union to walk all over the pitch most of the time. The home side ended up scoring a second when a defender of Gladbach deflected the ball into Andersson’s header.
The Swedish scored his 6th goal for Union Berlin. Gladbach is still leader but is now only 1 point away from second-place Leipzig and Bayern.
Borussia Dortmund 3 x 3 Paderborn
Lucien Favre seems to be hanging for a thread and it might not take long for the Dortmund coach to take the same fate as Niko Kovac. After the 4×0 trashing against Bayern, Dortmund could redeem themselves, with a reception to bottom side Paderborn.
To put things in perspective, Paderborn has 1 victory so far in the Bundesliga. Yet, they caused quite some trouble with Dortmund’s defense.
In fact, Paderborn surprised everyone at the Signal Iduna Park, being 3×0 up in the first half. Sterli Mamba scored twice and Holtmann made it 3 before halftime.
Jadon Sancho got the 3×1 after the break and when everything seemed lost, Axel Witsel rescued the Yellow Wall scoring the 3×2.
In the dying minutes, Marco Reus scored the equalizer, making it a great comeback and avoiding the embarrassment of a defeat. Still, with exhibitions like this, will Favre hold much longer?
Hoffenheim 1 x 5 Mainz 05
There are no explanations for what happened to Hoffenheim this weekend. The team came from a streak of 5 victories and they were going to play against the strugglers Mainz 05.
If you look at the final result, it even becomes worse when you think that Mainz 05 had a player sent off before the second half. Yet, Mainz still scored 4 goals after that, trashing Hoffenheim 1×5.
Mainz had let go of their coach Sandro Schwarz, who had 8 losses so far in the Bundesliga, including an 8×0 defeat against Leipzig. Achim Beierlorzer arrived, after having just been sacked by Koln, to replace him and somehow the new manager had quite an impact.
Oztunali opened the scoresheet in first half in favor of Mainz 05, but nobody was expecting them to keep their lead after Bote Baku having been sent off at the 45 minute.
However, in the second half an own goal by Kaderabek, a brace by Cameroonian player Pierre Kunde and another one by Jean-Paul Boetis sealed the historical 5 goal-win.
Kramaric scored the only goal for Hoffenheim, who crippled their recovery, after being so close to the lead. Mainz jumps out of the relegation zone, into 13th place.
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