The last Bundesliga matchday before the World Cup and thus the winter break is coming up. It’s all about getting points and a good feeling for the coming months.
The break will be long, only on January 20, after the World Cup, will the 16th match day of the Bundesliga continue. Accordingly, in addition to the points, the clubs also want to take a good feeling into the winter, especially those where the trend has recently pointed downwards.
Borussia Mönchengladbach – Borussia Dortmund (Friday, 8.30 p.m.)
Two losers of the 14th game day open the 15th, the duel of the Borussias is that of the table ninth against the -sixth. Dortmund in particular have completely different requirements, even if they are not far behind the teams placed before them.
BVB is particularly struggling away from home, losing four of seven games, most recently 2-0 at VfL Wolfsburg. Dortmund once again revealed a weakness that was supposed to be remedied with the signings of Niklas Süle and Nico Schlotterbeck: the defensive behavior in opposing standard situations.
But there are also problems in attack, especially away from home with only eight goals. The former Gladbach player Marco Reus will be absent from Borussia Park, he will also miss the World Cup due to his ankle injury. “We will play to win and we really want to get the three points”Dortmund’s coach Edin Terzic longs for a good end of the year.
Borussia vom Niederrhein will be happy that they can get a good feeling at home, because that’s where they have won their five seasons so far, most recently a 3-1 win over VfB Stuttgart with a very strong start. The performance at 1: 2 in Bochum a few days later was very sobering, the discussions about the disallowed equalizer covered that.
Yann Sommer and Tobias Sippel are still out for Gladbach, so Jan Olschowsky will be in goal again. Alassane Plea will also be absent. The striker is infected with the corona virus. “This is not the easiest news to digest”said coach Daniel Farke.
Bayer Leverkusen – VfB Stuttgart (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Bayer Leverkusen won two games in a row for the first time this season. But the 2-1 win at 1. FC Köln came about happily, thanks in particular to goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky that they only conceded a goal. In this way, Leverkusen kept the cushion in the relegation zone, from which three teams won on Matchday 14. Among them was VfB Stuttgart, who celebrated a 2-1 win over Hertha BSC thanks to a header from Konstantinos Mavropanos eight minutes into injury time.
Personally, the game will also be extremely important for Michael Wimmer. The interim coach of VfB is one of three candidates for the chief role after the break. A good performance away from home is still missing in his application portfolio. The two previous games were lost by Borussia with 0: 5 in Dortmund and 1: 3 in Gladbach.
However, Wimmer and VfB are plagued by injury worries: Wataru Endo, who was unconscious on the ground after a collision in the game against Hertha and was taken to a hospital with suspected concussion, is doing better, but the captain falls for the game in Leverkusen of VfB. The Japanese international’s participation in the World Cup should not be in danger. The Stuttgart team cannot hope for Mavropanos this time. The central defender is out due to a yellow card suspension, just like Robert Andrich at Leverkusen. But the list for the Swabians is even longer: right-back Pascal Stenzel out because of the flu. In addition, the use of left-back Borna Sosa “very questionable”, as Wimmer reported on Friday. The Croatian did not train on Thursday due to muscular problems.
TSG Hoffenheim – VfL Wolfsburg (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
The past few weeks could hardly have been more different for the two teams. Hoffenheim have only taken one point from the past four games, most recently lost 4-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt and showed a desolate performance on the defensive.
The Wolfsburg, on the other hand, won their last three games without conceding a goal. There are seven games without defeat in the Bundesliga, coach Niko Kovac has managed to turn things around and would like to take this good feeling with him into the break. He has to do without Lukas Nmecha. The striker, who also had hopes of a place in the German World Cup squad, suffered a partial rupture of the patellar tendon in his right knee in the match against Dortmund.
FC Augsburg – VfL Bochum (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
FC Augsburg is currently the longest of all Bundesliga teams without a win (three draws, three defeats), but recently won a respectable 2: 2 at home strong 1. FC Union Berlin – and that after two deficits. Florian Niederlechner scored both goals for Augsburg.
VfL Bochum is still five points behind FCA, but can catch up with the lower midfield with a win in a direct duel. Under the new coach Thomas Letsch, VfL’s form is clearly on the up. Nine of the ten points this season have come from seven games under Letsch. The problem with regard to the duel in Augsburg: All points were scored in their own stadium, most recently there was a deserved 2-1 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Castroper Straße.
Hertha BSC – 1. FC Cologne (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
Hertha BSC was the big loser of matchday 14 in the relegation battle. Not only did the Berliners lose to their rivals VfB Stuttgart, who had the same number of points up to that point, with a very late goal, the opponents from Bochum and Schalke also won their games. So Hertha is only two points ahead of the last place in the table. “When I see the group every day, I feel a lot of energy, but the reality is eleven points”said coach Sandro Schwarz before the duel with the Cologne team, who are in danger of running out of breath, given the additional burden of the European Cup.
Coach Steffen Baumgart’s team – a member of Hertha’s city rivals 1. FC Union – have only picked up one point from the past four games, but the recent defeat by Bayer Leverkusen was unfortunate. So far, the Cologne team has run an average of four kilometers more per game than the Hertha team. For a good feeling, Baumgart will certainly awaken passion one last time this year.
Werder Bremen – RB Leipzig (Saturday, 3.30 p.m.)
The question of whether Niclas Füllkrug is allowed to go to the World Cup is now with one “Yes” answered. The question of whether he can play against RB Leipzig after his back injury is still open. But it should look pretty good after Füllkrug missed the heavy 1: 6 at Bayern.
Werder Bremen initially thrived on their away strength this season, but most recently there were two wins against Hertha and Schalke at the Weser Stadium.
Nevertheless, there is a lot to be said for RB Leipzig. The Saxons have been unbeaten in twelve games in all competitions. In the Bundesliga, there was a 3-1 win against SC Freiburg and thus the jump to fifth place in the table. Since Marco Rose has been coach in Leipzig, no other club has scored more points in the Bundesliga – 20 from nine games.
FC Schalke 04 – FC Bayern Munich (Saturday, 6.30 p.m.)
Schalke, bottom of the table, meets leaders Bayern Munich. In the same constellation, VfL Bochum won against Union Berlin on the eleventh match day. But Bayern from mid-November are no longer the Bayern from September, when many points were dropped. Coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team has won the last five Bundesliga games, scoring 22 goals.
For Schalke it is the so-called bonus game after the extremely important game on Wednesday against 1. FSV Mainz 05 was won. It was the first victory for the new coach Thomas Reis with the Gelsenkircheners.
1. FSV Mainz 05 – Eintracht Frankfurt (Sunday, 3.30 p.m.)
Mainz recently lost three Bundesliga games in a row, which had only happened once before under coach Bo Svensson. The home record is also worrying, as they have only won once in their own stadium.
The mood and form curve at Eintracht are completely different. The Frankfurters have won seven of the last eight competitive games and only lost extremely unluckily to Borussia Dortmund. Nevertheless, the Hessians have now passed BVB. The 4-2 win over TSG Hoffenheim pushed the Champions League round of 16 into fourth place in the table.
Randal Kolo Muani is the top preparer in the Bundesliga with nine assists and leads the list of scorers together with Jamal Musiala (13 goals each). Frankfurt’s striker is now increasingly scoring himself – five times in the past eight competitive games.
SC Freiburg – 1. FC Union Berlin (Sunday, 5.30 p.m.)
No matter how the game ends, both clubs will go into the winter break with a good feeling. Maybe it will take a while after a possible defeat for that feeling to set in, but the season so far with 27 points each after 14 games doesn’t allow for any other conclusion.
With Christian Streich from the SCF and Urs Fischer from the “Eiserne”, the two currently longest-serving coaches in the Bundesliga meet. Streich has been responsible for the SC since the end of December 2011, and the Swiss fisherman for Union since the summer of 2018.
The winner of the duel will spend the winter in second place in the Bundesliga.