Goalkeeper Manuel Riemann remains in goal despite several mistakes at VfL Bochum, Max Eberl plays for Leipzig against Gladbach for the first time, and anniversary derbies are coming up in Frankfurt and in the Revier. The preview of the 24th match day of the Bundesliga.
1. FC Cologne – VfL Bochum (Friday, 8.30 p.m.)
Four defeats in a row, each without a goal, most recently a 0-2 relegation duel against FC Schalke 04: VfL Bochum is back in bottom place in the Bundesliga.
“We shouldn’t be fooled by the results. Bochum is difficult to play in and is able to achieve results that nobody expects.”Cologne coach Steffen Baumgart did his duty and warned of the battered opponents, who can fall back on their captain Anthony Losilla in the game on Friday evening (from 8:20 p.m. live in the radio report on sportschau.de) after a suspension.
The Cologne team currently have their own worries on the offensive. They haven’t scored in the last three games. The last 0-0 win at 1. FC Union Berlin was worthy of all credit, because Baumgart’s team was the better one at the Alte Försterei.
Bochum coach Thomas Letsch announced that Manuel Riemann will remain in goal for VfL, despite another blatant mistake against Schalke.
Hertha BSC – 1. FSV Mainz 05 (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Four teams have 19 points at the bottom of the table, Hertha only one more. After all, the Berliners won their last two home games and can draw some courage from this for the game on Saturday (from 3.20 p.m. live in the radio report on sportschau.de), in which coach Sandro Schwarz meets his former club.
His successor Bo Svensson won the last four games and is currently the Mainz coach with the best point average in history. Five wins from six games make 1. FSV the second-best team in the second half of the season. It can be dreamed of the European Cup.
RB Leipzig – Borussia Mönchengladbach (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
After the defeat in Dortmund, RB Leipzig is seven points behind the two best teams in the Bundesliga. The Saxons have now said goodbye to the title fight. But that will initially be a side note when Borussia Mönchengladbach comes to the remodeled central stadium. The focus on Saturday (from 3.20 p.m. live in the radio report on sportschau.de) will be Max Eberl, who will meet his former club for the first time as Leipzig managing director.
Borussia fans should bring clear messages with them, even if their own club warned them beforehand to treat Eberl with respect. “It drips off me. Who it hits more: my parents”Eberl said of insults he had recently received from fans of other clubs.
Leipzig coach Marco Rose, whom Eberl brought to Mönchengladbach from Salzburg, has to do without Xaver Schlager and Christopher Nkunku, who were injured in the game in Dortmund. Ramy Bensebaini will be out of action at Gladbach due to a suspension. The left-back saw the yellow-red card in the 0-0 win against SC Freiburg and then insulted the referee in French. As a result, he was suspended for another game.
FC Bayern – FC Augsburg (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Won 1-0 at Paris Saint-Germain, 2-0 in their own stadium: what Bayern managed against Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi, to remain without a goal in two comparisons, the champions managed in the Bundesliga in six already played back and forth games only against the current bottom of the table VfL Bochum.
In the first duel with FC Augsburg, the champions conceded a goal, which promptly led to their first defeat of the season. The Bavarian Swabians have scored six times against Munich in the Bundesliga so far, but never in both games of the season.
Their record away from home has been extremely poor lately, but thanks to their strength at home, the lead over the relegation place has increased to eight points. “We can go to Munich free and bang everything in there again”said Arne Maier, who scored in the 2-1 win over SV Werder Bremen on matchday 23.
After the game in the Champions League against PSG, it can be assumed that Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann will make some changes against Augsburg (Saturday, from 3.20 p.m. live on the radio report on sportschau.de).
Eintracht Frankfurt – VfB Stuttgart (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
It’s not quite as bad as at FC Schalke 04, who won again in Bochum after 38 away games in the Bundesliga without a win, at VfB Stuttgart. However, the Swabians have already gone 21 away games without a win. The performance in the 1: 2 at Schalke two weeks ago was shocking in the first half. Coach Bruno Labbadia’s team improved enormously against FC Bayern, but there were points for the current 15th in the table. still not.
Before matchday 22, Eintracht was still a title contender, five points behind the top of the table. After the defeat in Leipzig and the 2-2 draw at VfL Wolfsburg, there are now ten points. Another qualification for the Champions League, in which the return leg in the round of 16 at SSC Napoli is due on Wednesday (March 15th, 2023), is now the measure of all things.
The last four home games have all been won, most recently the Frankfurt team even kept four clean sheets. Eintracht and VfB will face each other for the 100th time in the Bundesliga on Saturday (from 3:20 p.m. live in the radio report on sportschau.de).
FC Schalke 04 – Borussia Dortmund (Saturday, 6.30 p.m.)
It is the Derby in the Ruhr area and it will be the 100th in the Bundesliga. FC Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund meet on Saturday evening (from 6:20 p.m. live on the radio report on sportschau.de). It is the duel between the table 17th, who has the same number of points as the last one, against the second, who has the same number of points as the leader. It is also the game of the only two teams that are still undefeated in the second half of the season.
At Borussia Dortmund, however, this only applies to the Bundesliga. In the Champions League, BVB were eliminated after a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea. In addition, Julian Brandt tore a muscle fiber early in the game. The offensive player, who was in such good form before, will be missing in the derby, and captain Marco Reus could also be forced to take a break due to an infection. Gregor Kobel, who missed the win against RB Leipzig and the game in London due to a muscle injury, should be on target again.
Schalke can build on their own fans and the increased self-confidence that “growing from game to game”as goal scorer Marius Bülter put it after the 2-0 win in Bochum, with a view to ten points from six games in the second half of the season.
SC Freiburg – TSG Hoffenheim (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.)
After the probable highlight of the club’s history with the away game in the Europa League at Juventus Turin, SC Freiburg is due to play against the Bundesliga team with the weakest form on Sunday (from 3.20 p.m. live in the radio report on sportschau.de).
In the first half of the season, SC’s game at 1899 Hoffenheim was still a duel between second and fourth. Coach Christian Streich’s team stayed up after that and is now fifth. For TSG, however, things went steeply downhill. The team coached by Pellegrino Matarazzo, who have lost all of their first four games, are level on points with bottom-placed VfL Bochum.
Hoffenheim have only scored two points in the last 13 games, most recently they lost 1-0 at 1. FSV Mainz 05.
Werder Bremen – Bayer Leverkusen (Sunday, 5.30 p.m.)
Superior and with significantly better chances, but Werder Bremen still lost the game at FC Augsburg last weekend 1:2. Bayer Leverkusen therefore overtook Bremen in the table with a 4-1 win against Hertha BSC.
Before their duel on Sunday (from 5:20 p.m. live on the radio report on sportschau.de), both teams have a good lead over the relegation zone and a smaller gap to seventh place in the table, which could be enough to qualify for a European competition.
VfL Wolfsburg – 1. FC Union Berlin (Sunday, 7.30 p.m.)
VfL Wolfsburg will not get going in 2023. The team coached by Niko Kovac won only one of six games in the second half of the season, most recently there was a 2-2 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.
After all, the Lower Saxony meet, in Union, on the other hand, it is stuck on the offensive. After the 0-0 against FC Schalke 04, who were bottom of the table at the time, and the 0-3 at FC Bayern, there was another goalless draw on matchday 23, this time against 1. FC Köln.
Wolfsburg will miss captain Maximilian Arnold in the late game on Sunday (from 7:20 p.m. live on the radio report on sportschau.de).