25th matchday
Berlin (dpa) – Bayern did not win the top game, for the record champions the premier class now counts. Hertha BSC clearly loses another game – and coach Tayfun Korkut has to ask uncomfortable questions. Only one game will be kicked off on Sunday.
own goal
Thomas Müller played over 400 games in the Bundesliga and he never scored in his own goal. Until Saturday. In his 407th game, the national player did not score for Bayern, but for Bayer Leverkusen, the top game ended 1-1. “I don’t think Thomas is super depressed,” said coach Julian Nagelsmann: “An action like this also happens to the best.” The lead at the top of the table is reassuring anyway. The first thing that counts for Munich is the round of 16 second leg in the Champions League on Tuesday against RB Salzburg.
crisis
Lost again. Hertha BSC has to be prepared for a tough final phase of the season. The 1: 4 against Eintracht Frankfurt was the eighth game in a row without a win. The coach wants to continue. “Yes, of course, I’m still convinced, not only of my work, but above all of the team,” said Tayfun Korkut on Sky. “Today it wasn’t enough, we all know that, we don’t need to talk about it. We have to work to make it enough again.”
feelings
The emotional worlds after the evening game could hardly have been much further apart. VfB Stuttgart celebrated the 3-2 comeback win against Borussia Mönchengladbach. And the Gladbachers were frustrated and wondered how they could lose a 2-0 lead. “We didn’t manage to defend well,” said Gladbach’s coach Adi Hütter on Sky. “Stuttgart certainly showed us how passionately they played.” The game was “very disappointing”. Stuttgart’s Borna Sosa said: “We are VfB Stuttgart, we have to fight until the last game, we want to stay in the Bundesliga.” The relegation place is only one point away for VfB.
minutes
Only a few minutes were missing. Freiburg was on the verge of winning at RB Leipzig and moving past the Saxons to fourth place in the Champions League. But in the last minute of regular time, the RB goal was scored to make it 1-1. Perhaps after reaching the semi-finals in the DFB Cup, you just lost a bit of strength after extra time? “After the game in Bochum, where we went to the edge, the team played an extraordinary game in terms of energy and attitude,” said SC coach Christian Streich.
goodbye
Max Kruse was still thinking a bit about his former teammates. “A point would have been fair for Union in the end,” said the striker, who switched from Union Berlin back to VfL Wolfsburg at the end of January, on Sky. Nevertheless, the 33-year-old celebrated the 1-0 win against the Berliners with VfL. The three points were very important for Wolfsburg – with a total of 31 points, the Lower Saxony have set themselves apart from the lower region of the table.
amends
Maxim Leitsch was still deeply sad during the week, as his mistake had largely led to the end of the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup. But the 23-year-old celebrated on Saturday. “The fact that I’m making my first Bundesliga goal just one game after the mistake is mega,” he said on Sky after the 2-1 win against bottom SpVgg Greuther Fürth and showed a poster that he received from a fan in exchange for his jersey would have. “I’ll find a place for that. It’s a nice souvenir of the game,” said Leitsch. With 32 points, Bochum should be rid of relegation worries.
corona
Due to the transfer of the game from Borussia Dortmund to FSV Mainz 05 after numerous corona cases in the Rheinhessen, only one game will be kicked off on Sunday. TSG Hoffenheim will play 1. FC Köln in the afternoon (5.30 p.m. / DAZN). With a view to the rest of the season, Hoffenheim’s coach Sebastian Hoeneß spoke of a “middle-distance run at high speed”. Cologne’s top scorer Anthony Modeste meets his ex-club: he played in Kraichgau from 2013 to 2015.