The classic Borussia Dortmund against Bayern Munich is once again in the spotlight on the 9th Bundesliga matchday. But there are other encounters with potential for excitement, such as Bayer Leverkusen against Schalke 04 thanks to the debut of new coach Xabi Alonso or the Rhenish derby between Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln.
With the live reports of the individual games in the full report, you won’t miss a goal at sportschau.de.
TSG Hoffenheim – SV Werder Bremen (Friday, 8.30 p.m.)
The Bremer Ballerbude meets the fourth best defense in the league. With 18 goals scored, the north Germans currently have the second-best offensive in the league behind FC Bayern (23). For a promoted team, that’s a remarkable start, but of course it’s still no guarantee of staying up in the league for the season.
However, Bremen should be happy about this look at history: With 18 goals at this point in the season, only one team has been relegated, and that was a long time ago: 49 years ago it was Hannover 96 in the 1973/74 season. Man of the hour at SVW is Niclas Füllkrug, who leads the Bundesliga top scorer list with seven goals. Only Rudi Völler scored more Werder goals in the 1985/86 season with eight goals.
Bayer Leverkusen – FC Schalke 04 (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
The change of coach in Leverkusen puts everything else in the shade before this western duel. Xabi Alonso should lead Leverkusen back to the road to success that the factory club surprisingly left. The Spaniard wants to listen to the team as quickly as possible: “Time is a luxury in football. We have a lot to do, I need to get to know the players and connect, find out what the mood is like”said Alonso at his presentation.
A measly five points after eight games – Bayer goes into this matchday with the weakest record in 40 years. Schalke only have one point more on their account, where coach Frank Kramer is slowly coming under pressure. In all seasons, the former Bielefeld coach has only won three games this year. After Leverkusen, Hoffenheim comes to Schalke, then it’s off to Bochum. At the latest in the Revierderby, Kramer must win so that the discussions about him don’t get any louder.
FSV Mainz 05 – RB Leipzig (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Leipzig without goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi – that’s hard to imagine. Since joining the Bundesliga six years ago, the Hungarian has missed a total of seven Bundesliga games. Curious: he missed exactly once every season, only twice in the 2019/2020 season. It will now be a long time before the 32-year-old is back in goal following his cruciate ligament injury in the game against Celtic Glasgow.
Good for Leipzig and substitute keeper Janis Blaswich: Mainz and scoring goals at home – that hasn’t been a good combination so far this season. Only one goal was scored in front of a home crowd and that was on the 7th match day against Hertha BSC in the fourth minute of stoppage time by Anthony Caci. This is of course far too little.
VfL Bochum – Eintracht Frankfurt (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Eintracht has only known one direction for a short time and that is upwards. No team has scored more points from the last five Bundesliga games – twelve in fact. From 15th place it went up to 6th place. And everything speaks for the fact that the chosen direction will be maintained, after all it’s going to bottom of the table in Bochum.
The trend reversal after the change of coach failed to materialize there. Under the new coach Thomas Letsch, nothing was better at 0: 4 in Leipzig. But that should change at Letsch’s home premiere. After all, the Bochum team doesn’t want to continue to expand their negative record. A point after eight games with a goal difference of minus 18 – no club in Bundesliga history has ever been that bad.
FC Augsburg – VfL Wolfsburg (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
The sun is shining again over football Augsburg. Three wins from three games like now, that was three years ago. FCA have never had four wins after eight matchdays in their Bundesliga history – it’s under new coach Enrico Maassen. And the Augsburgers still like to think back to the last meeting: on the 28th matchday of the previous season, there was a 3-0 win over the wolves.
However, they recently showed that they can do better than at the beginning of the season. Two wins from the last three games (against Stuttgart and in Frankfurt). Overall, however, there could be a rather tough struggle in front of the respective gates. Both teams have had the fewest shots on goal of all clubs this season: Wolfsburg 85 and Augsburg 77. Both teams scored eight goals each – the minus figure in the league after VfL Bochum.
Borussia Dortmund – Bayern Munich (Saturday, 6.30 p.m.)
Dortmund against Bayern – and neither of the two top teams is in first place before this duel. This is an unusual table constellation. After all, the two rivals shot warmly for the eternal summit – Bayern with five goals against Pilsen, Dortmund with four goals in Seville.
For the hosts, the change in personnel that has been imminent for some time is becoming apparent. Youssoufa Moukoko is expected to replace the disappointing new signing Anthony Modeste. BVB trainer Edin Terzic gave a lengthy eulogy to his youngster after the win in Seville. “He played a really good game”said coach Edin Terzic, but also put it into perspective: “A good game, that’s not enough! We’ll tell him to do it more often.” Preferably against Bayern.
But they should go into the top game quite calmly: FCB have won ten of the last eleven Bundesliga games against Dortmund, recently there were even seven Munich wins in a row – breaking this series will not be easy.
Borussia Mönchengladbach – 1. FC Köln (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.)
This man should give the Gladbachers a headache: In the second leg of last season, Florian Kainz stood out on the Cologne side with a goal and an assist in the 3-1 win. The Austrian is currently playing in good form again, was involved in two goals in the win against Dortmund and has already scored seven points. Kainz currently occupies fourth place in the league-wide scorer list.
The best scorer at Borussia Mönchengladbach is Marcus Thuram, who scored his fourth goal against Bremen and has long since become a fixture under coach Daniel Farke. The Frenchman started as a left winger with the Foals, Farke uses him as a central striker. “He’s still a young player and just getting used to the central striker role. He’s not yet in the Robert Lewandowski spheres. If he were, he’d probably have 15 goals under his belt by now“, said Farke and hopes for a better use of Thuram’s chances. Kainz or Thuram – maybe one of these two will tip the derby scales on Sunday.
Hertha BSC – SC Freiburg (Sunday, 5.30 p.m.)
The fact that Michael Gregoritsch now feels very comfortable in Freiburg can be seen from the numbers. The striker had eight shots on goal against Mainz (2-1), not only equaling his personal Bundesliga record, but also the league-wide season record. A total of four goals jumped out for him. He has already scored four goals against Hertha in his footballing career, but he has never become a match winner at his previous clubs against Hertha.
The Austrian won only one game against Hertha BSC with HSV – but he was used as a joker and only played one minute. Should things go better this time and the Freiburgers claim their sixth win of the season, SC Freiburg could well be the new leaders after the 9th matchday. Incidentally, the SCF has never started better: 17 points and five wins mean a club record. By the way: Freiburg is also the best away team in the league with three wins and one draw.
VfB Stuttgart – Union Berlin (Sunday, 7.30 p.m.)
VfB versus Union – that’s also the game of old versus young. This season, the Irons are sending the team with the second highest average age onto the lawn, namely 28 years. Only Bochum are even older – 29.1 years. VfB, on the other hand, is back with its young wild ones, average age 24.0 years. The Swabians are the youngest team for the third Bundesliga season in a row.
Whether young or old – the question arises as to when the Stuttgart team will achieve their first win of the season. Above all, coach Pellegrino Matarazzo needs it, and his possible replacement at VfB has long been discussed. The names Adi Hütter and Sebastian Hoeneß are already doing the rounds on the Neckar.
In order to avert the exchange of coaches, what is needed above all is an increase in performance in the goalkeeper position. Florian Müller blundered in the last two appearances, after having excelled in the 1-1 draw against Bayern. Against Frankfurt (1: 3) he didn’t look good with two goals conceded, also against Wolfsburg (1: 2) he let a shot from Maximilian Arnold slip through his hands.