There is never a dearth of drama in German football, and Saturday night’s football provided no different results. After Bayern Munich went down to Borussia Monchengladbach by slender margins at the Allianz Arena, Borussia Dortmund provided a comeback win for the ages to remember against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Julian Nagelsmann had nine players ruled out due to COVID and was not best-placed for this tough fixture. He had called up a few U19 players to start like Malik Tillman, and Marcel Sabitzer was asked to play at left-back, but they did get off to a good start. Robert Lewandowski was their first goal-scorer of 2022, who got his 20th league goal of the campaign.
The joy resided just a few minutes, though, as Florian Neuhaus and Stefan Lainer got their goals in a span of four minutes. Joshua Kimmich, who returned after a long time, failed to deal with a cross, and that set Neuhaus clear to drill the ball home. Their defenders were caught napping once again, providing Lainer the opportunity to take a shot from distance into the far corner.
Bayern suffered their third defeat of the campaign and kick-started 2022 on a sombre note. This allowed Borussia Dortmund to close the gap on the top position, which they did by the barest of margins. Rafael Borre’s brace in the first 25 minutes took Frankfurt to a comfortable 2-0 lead at half-time, and Dortmund lacked inspiration until Thorgan Hazard stepped in for Julian Brandt in the 65th minute.
In just six minutes, Hazard was at the heart of a sensational build-up goal, and Haaland delivered the penultimate touch for it. Jude Bellingham was inside the 6-yard box to meet Thomas Meunier’s cross in the 87th minute to equalize for Dortmund, just two minutes before Mahmoud Dahoud struck from outside the box to thump his side home to a sensational 3-2 win.
RB Leipzig had no trouble finishing off Mainz after the latter were restricted to 10 men courtesy Alexander Hack’s red card. Andre Silva opened the scoring via a penalty before Christopher Nkunku added a brace. Silva struck again at the hour mark as Domenico Tedesco’s men earned a 4-1 win at home.
Hoffenheim went down in the first five minutes at home to Augsburg, but Ihlas Bebou scored two quick goals at the stroke of half-time to give the hosts their lead. David Raum struck in the second-half stoppage time to make it 3-1, a victory which sees Hoffenheim third on the table.
Freiburg had the opportunity to go above Hoffenheim, but they played out a 2-2 draw at home to Arminia Bielefeld. They got an early goal at the beginning of both halves and looked comfortable with their 2-0 lead, but Masaya Okugawa’s hour-mark strike, added by Bryan Lasme’s late equalizer stunned the hosts, who lost their two-goal cushion and dropped two crucial points.
Bayer Leverkusen were another side who dropped two big points at home. Patrik Schik opened the scoring in the game against Union Berlin before Grischa Promel added two goals in five minutes across two halves. Leverkusen chased the game for a better part and finally got their due with Jonathan Tah headed home a Bellarabi cross.
