Bayer Leverkusen – 1. FC Cologne (Sunday, 1.30 p.m.)
Duels in the Bundesliga: The overall record of the hosts is clearly positive against Cologne, and there have been ten points from the last four Bundesliga games. It could have been all twelve – hadn’t Cologne’s top top scorer Anthony Modeste equalized the early Leverkusen 2-0 lead with two goals in the second half.
What else you should know: 1. FC Köln is having a great season under coach and crowd favorite Steffen Baumgart and is surprisingly fighting for a place in the European Cup – but the Rhinelanders currently have to be careful not to miss out on their big dream. There was an annoying home defeat against Hoffenheim last matchday, now with Leverkusen and Dortmund we are going against two absolute top teams.
An advantage for Cologne could be that the hosts still had to play in the Europa League in Bergamo on Thursday evening. The first half of the season also took place after an away game for Leverkusen in the Europa League – Bayer traveled to FC after a 1-1 draw at Betis Sevilla and, as described above, lost a 2-0 lead in the second half.
Also important:
Borussia Dortmund – Arminia Bielefeld (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.)
Duels in the Bundesliga: Arminia Bielefeld played the very first Bundesliga game in its history in Dortmund – in August 1970 there was a 0:3 defeat. Since then, Arminia has not celebrated more successes against a club than against Dortmund with twelve wins, but the last one so far was 15 years ago. Bielefeld last won in Dortmund 22 years ago.
What else you should know: Dortmund shouldn’t complain about a lack of regeneration time – due to the postponement of the game in Mainz on the previous day, BVB now had a whopping 14 days between the game in Augsburg and the home game against Bielefeld. That also entails risks, as the Dortmund season threatens to bog down a bit anyway: Eliminated in the Champions and Europa League and in the DFB Cup, firmly cemented in second place in the league with plenty of legroom in all directions. Real love without real goals.
The guests from Bielefeld are anything but a “Lame Duck”. The Arminen are fully in relegation mode – this can also be proven by numbers: No team ran more (119.5 kilometers per game on average), no team fought so many duels (224 per game on average). Impressive: Since Frank Kramer has been coach, no other team has kept clean sheets as often as Bielefeld (13 times). Most recently against Augsburg, however, there was a damper.
Also important: