Bundesliga Match 5: Wrap-up
After a scintillating midweek Champions League tilt against FC Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund was expected to come back to Bundesliga play and carry over the same effort it displayed against Barca.
Eintracht Frankfurt, however, had no intention of just rolling over for a BVB squad the forced a draw with big, bad, Barca. Die Adler, in fact, pushed Dortmund hard and forced is own draw after an own goal by Thomas Delaney in the 88th minute put the score at 2-2.
Dortmund jumped out to an early lead in the 11th minute when Axel Witsel scored, but Eintracht Frankfurt was not going to go away that easily. Andre Silva tied the game in the 23rd minute and showed BVB that it was in for a fight.
Jadon Sancho eventually did what he seemingly always does when Dortmund is struggling -- made a play and scored to give Dortmund a relatively comfortable 2-1 lead in the 66th minute. The game, however, was far from over as Die Adler later proved in forcing the draw.
For Eintracht Frankfurt, the result was extremely positive given the massive turnover the squad has gone through over the past three months. For Dortmund, however, the result was nothing aside of troubling. Still showing some of the inconsistency that led to last season's Ruckrunde collapse, Dortmund needs to sort itself out once more.
With an abundance of talent, Lucien Favre is not going to keep all of the voice on the bench silent if the squad on the field can't garner positive results.
Prediction: Borussia Dortmund 3, Eintracht Frankfurt 1 (L)
SC Freiburg 1, FC Augsburg 1: Lucas Holer's 23rd minute goal had Breisgau-Brasilianer feeling good, but Florian Niederlechner's 39th minute tally for Die Fuggerstadter eventually earned both teams a point.
We are enjoying Freiburg early run of quality play and hopefully it can continue. For Augsburg, it was a much needed point.
Prediction: SC Freiburg 3, FC Augsburg 2 (L)
Schalke 04 2, Mainz 05 1: Schalke's Suat Serdar (36') and M05's Karim Onisiwo (75') traded goals, but it was Amine Harit's 89th minute game winner for Die Königsblauen that kept Schalke right in the mix.
Prediction: Schalke 04 2, Mainz 05 1 (W)*
Bayer Leverkusen 2, Union Berlin 0: Kevin Volland (20') and Lucas Alario (25') both scored to put Union Berlin away early.
Prediction: Bayern Leverkusen 3, Union Berlin 1 (W)
Bayern Munich 4, FC Koln 0: The Bayern Munich machine just keeps rolling. Robert Lewandowski had a brace, Philippe Coutinho added a penalty kick conversion, and Ivan Perisic scored in the 73rd minute to decimate the Billy Goats.
Prediction: Bayern Munich 3, FC Koln 0 (W)
Hertha Berlin 2, SC Paderborn 1: Javairo Dilrosun (10') and recently acquired Dortmund-loanee Marius Wolf put Die Alte Dame up early before Paderborn's Ben Zolinski (54') cut the lead. That would be as close as SCP would get as Hertha Berlin got three much needed points.
Prediction: Hertha Berlin 2, SC Paderborn 1 (W)*
Borussia Monchengladbach 2, Fortuna Dusseldorf 1: Nuhu Kasim put F95 up 1-0 in the 6th minute, but a brace from Marcus Thuram (74', 87') clinched three points for Die Fohlen.
Prediction: Borussia Monchengladbach 2, Fortuna Dusseldorf 1 (W)*
RB Leipzig 3, Werder Bremen 0: Heavy is the head that wears the (current) crown, unless you are RB Leipzig. Willi Orban (13') and Marcel Sabitzer (35') staked Die Roten Bullen out to an early 2-0 lead and Marcelo Saracchi finalized the scoring in the 83rd minute.
For Werder Bremen it just simply has to be better. It won't be easy, though, as Niclas Fullkrug looks like he is out for the season with a knee injury. The 26-year-old has had no luck with injuries over the past two years, but this does open up an opportunity for USMNT striker Josh Sargent to make a bigger impact with Die Werderaner.
Prediction: RB Leipzig 3, Werder Bremen 2 (W)
Wolfsburg 1, Hoffenheim 1: TSG1899's Sebastian Rudy out his squad out to an early lead, which was awesome to see. Rudy has had a calamitous few years from his unsuccessful -- and frankly unlucky -- stint with Bayern Munich to last season's dumpster fire survival at Schalke, it is just good to see him playing confidently again.
Admir Mehmedi's 36th minute goal knotted the contest for the Wolves, who won't be happy about letting two points slip away.
Prediction: Wolfsburg 2, Hoffenheim 1 (L)
Season Record
Previous match day record: 6-3
Season record: 25-20
Perfect calls: 4
