Borussia Dortmunds’s Surprise Pain is Music to Bayern Munichs’s Ears

In the penultimate game week of September, Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt continued their marches at the head of the Bundesliga bunch. The pair capitalised on the capitulation of their fellow foes near the head of the German top flight, clearing daylight between them and their contenders.

Armin Veh’s underdogs began the weekend with a Friday fixture at Nuremburg, who had already managed to prevent title holders, Borussia Dortmund, from taking all three points at the Stadion Nürnberg. However, Eintracht proved their inspirational start to the season may be more than a simple blip with a 2-1 win. Goals from Erwin Hoffer and Takashi Inui led the second placed side to their fourth consecutive victory while Sebastian Polter grabbed a late consolation for the hosts.
Der FCB by no means had an easy fixture of their own either, but managed to take make the most of Saturday’s trip to the Veltins-Arena. Schalke 04 managed to restrain Jupp Heynckes’ men for the first half, but their resolve was broken in the second half when Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller netted in the 55^th and 58^th minutes, respectively. Bayern remain at the top of the table, but only hold a goal difference advantage over Eintracht Frankfurt.

Meanwhile, both Veh and Heynckes will have been pleased that Hamburg earned their first points of the campaign, but more because they came in a win over Borussia Dortmund. The Yellow and Blacks streak of 31 league games unbeaten came to an end in a surprise 3-2 loss to the Red Shorts, who chose an ideal occasion to get their first win of the season.
Heung-Min Son scored against the odds in the second minute, and the two sides went scoreless for the rest of the first period. Ivan Perisic equalised early in the second half but Ivo Ilicevic scored to put Hamburg back in front. Thorsten Fink’s joys were doubled as Heung-Min bagged his second, and although Perisic completed a brace of his own, Jürgen Klopp’s men ultimately finished as second best.
Elsewhere, Wolfsburg slipped to a streak of their own, and have now gone three games without a victory after their 1-1 draw against Greuther Fürth. The visitors will have walked away from the Volkswagen Arena the much happier of the two, and are still unbeaten this season. The 28^th minute saw Emmanuel Pogatetz put the ball in his own net, but summer signing Ivica Olic rescued a point for Wolfsburg three minutes before the break.
Augsburg maintained their position as relegation candidates and saw out their third league loss in four games, succumbing to a Mainz assault. Adam Szalai scored for the second game in a row and Andreas Ivanschitz also contributed to a 2-0 win for the home side. The victory was a much-needed one for Mainz and sees the O-Fives move a lot closer to mid-table.
Also in the mid-table spots, Freiburg and Fortuna Düsseldorf showed that they may be competing for a similar finish this season, running out a rather uneventful 0-0 draw in North-Rhine.
On Sunday, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Mönchengladbach resumed the tight affair they held in the previous campaign, and shared the spoils after the latest meeting at the BayArena. Patrick Hermann showed once again that he may be capable of filling the void left by summer departure, Marco Reus, and opened the scoring. However, Michel Kadlec displayed his own talismanic nature with a 12^th minute equaliser, only to see out a goalless remainder of the fixture.
In the last encounters of the weekend, Stuttgart looked to move away from relegation as they made their way to Werder Bremen, while bottom of the table Hoffenheim hosted Hannover 96.
The Weserstadion bared witness to an incredibly tense affair that saw both sides finish the afternoon with ten men. On-loan Chelsea youngster, Kevin de Bruyne, opened the scoring and Werder moved into a deserved 2-0 lead before half-time thanks to a Zlatko Junuzovic second. After the break, Martin Harnik scored early on before Cacau struck in the 81^st minute to earn a point for Stuttgart.
Harnik’s day didn’t ended too joyfully though, and the forward was sent off for a second caution four minutes from time. The hosts then had a player of their own sent for an early shower as Assani Lukimya saw a straight red in extra time. Nils Petersen was a star for the hosts and while a 2-2 draw wasn’t the desired result, the 23-year old’s two assists were a plus for Werder.
Hoffenheim also pulled off an upset and goals Fabian Johnson, Daniel Williams and Sejad Salihovic wrapped up their first points of the season. Matthieu Delpierre scored an own goal to put the hosts 1-0 down, but Hoffenheim responded tremendously to turn around their terrible start to the campaign.
So, while the top of the table may look the same, this week was one of great change for everywhere but, as we saw great movement at the bottom of the division and mid-table, too.