Battle for German Champions League tickets is only getting more exciting. Germany may register four participants for the Champions League from the Bundesliga and it will be quite exciting in the last four rounds which two teams, together with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, who already seem to be in, will go to the billion dollar ball. The results of Saturday afternoon brought things even closer together.
Union Berlin 0-0 Bayer Leverkusen
Union Berlin is the surprising number three in the Bundesliga and hoped to get closer to Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich on Saturday. However, the capitals received a visit from Bayer Leverkusen, which has been in excellent shape lately. Xabi Alonso has managed to make Die Werkself a difficult team to fight.
Saturday’s game in Berlin was quite close. Union (with Danilho Doekhi and Sheraldo Becker in the base) and Bayer Leverkusen (with Jeremie Frimpong and Mitchel Bakker) defended better than they attacked and neither scored. The draw means that Union retains its lead of eight points over number six Bayer Leverkusen.
1. FC Cologne 0-1 SC Freiburg
Goalkeeper Mark Flek’s SC Freiburg benefited from Union Berlin’s draw by beating mid-engine 1. FC Köln themselves. Ritsu Doan was the match winner: ten minutes into the second half, the former PSV player was in the right place with an extended corner kick (0-1). Freiburg now has the same number of points as Union, but remains fourth due to a lesser goal difference.
However the season ends for Freiburg: it is in any case a historic year for Flek’s employer. The team is now on 56 points and has never scored so many points in a season since the introduction of the three-point system.
RB Leipzig 1-0 Hoffenheim
RB Leipzig continues to put pressure on Union and Freiburg. Marco Rose’s team made no mistake against 1899 Hoffenheim and took full advantage thanks to Christopher Nkunku’s thirteenth season goal. For the Frenchman it meant his first Bundesliga goal since November 9: in between he has been injured twice for several weeks. Leipzig has two points less than Union and Freiburg and will visit the latter team next week.
Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Augsburg
FC Augsburg picked up a welcome point in its fight against relegation on a visit to Eintracht Frankfurt. Jeffrey Gouweleeuw participated from start to finish at Augsburg and saw his team show resilience after an unfortunate own goal by Elvis Rexhbecaj. Ermedin Demirovic made it 1-1 in the second half with his seventh goal of this season. And that turned out to be the final chord.
VfB Stuttgart 2-1 Borussia Monchengladbach
VfB Stuttgart recorded a very important victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach and is now above the relegation zone again. Die Schwaben have the same number of points as VfL Bochum, which, however, has a lesser goal difference and has therefore fallen to sixteenth place. At the end of the day, that means promotion/relegation matches. For Stuttgart, Tanguy Coulibaly became the match winner against Gladbach: ten minutes before the end he used a penalty kick for the 2-1.
