Leipzig’s rise to contention has online betting pundits spurning last year’s runners-up Borussia Dortmund. However, BVB showed this Matchday 19 that they are determined to turn heads again as the second half of the season continues.
Football bets might have been against them at the start of the week, but Dortmund can’t be ignored now that they look ready to reclaim their lost glory.
Borussia Dortmund 1-0 RB Leipzig
Thomas Tuchel and his Dortmund side cut Leipzig’s lead to just eight points with a narrow victory at Westfalenstadion. The Bulls obviously lack firepower with top-scorer Timo Werner out due to illness, and BVB took advantage of it to dominate early and get their revenge for their 1-0 defeat last September.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang went on a rampage as he had five shots on goal, and his 35th-minute header from Ousmane Dembele’s pinpoint cross just after the half-hour mark proved to be enough to move them to third.
Hamburger SV 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen
It was a frustrating turn of events for Bayer as they lost to Hamburg, courtesy of a goal from their on-loan player Kyriakos Papadopoulos. Hamburg weren’t that much of a threat as the game appeared to be heading towards a goalless draw, but the Greek international stepped up with a powerful 76th-minute header to break the deadlock and punish the club paying his salary.
Bayern Munich 1-1 Schalke 04
Bayern extended their lead to four at the top despite a draw at home, thanks to Leipzig’s loss to Dortmund. The defending champions, though, could have lost all the points if Guido Burgstaller’s goal wasn’t chalked off for offside. In the end, the two teams had to settle for goals from Robert Lewandowski and Naldo – both scored inside the opening 15 minutes.
Borussia Monchengladbach 3-0 Freiburg
New coach Dieter Hecking has a lot to be happy about as his Gladbach remain unbeaten in three Bundesliga games. The match stayed goalless until late in the second half as Freiburg looked to upset, but a 73rd-minute goal from Captain Lars Stindl opened the floodgates, and Raffael and Patrick Herrmann followed suit to put the game to rest.
Hertha BSC 1-0 Ingolstadt
The Capital club got their first points of 2017 at the expense of Ingolstadt who remain in relegation places. Genki Haraguchi fired home after just 61 seconds to put the Berliners ahead, and it was enough for them to delight the crowd at Olympiastadion.
FC Koln 1-0 Wolfsburg
Although Yuya Osako proved to be dangerous for Wolfsburg, the Billy Goats still needed an 81st-minute penalty goal from Anthony Modeste to bag the victory. The hosts threatened for the most part, but they were unlucky not to convert clear-cut chances from Osako and Konstantin Rausch.
Hoffenheim 4-0 Mainz 05
After suffering their first loss of the season last week, Julian Nagelsmann’s outfit bounced back mightily with a four-goal drubbing of Mainz. Mark Uth gave Hoffenheim the lead early; however, it wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of play that the hosts pulled away, with a goal from Marco Terrazzino and a double from Adam Szalai.
Augsburg 3-2 Werder Bremen
Augsburg fought back twice in the match to further pull away from the danger zone. Raul Bobadilla also displayed some clutch-time heroics as his extra-time winner propelled Fuggerstadter to victory, after Jonathan Schmid and Ja-Cheol Koo cancelled out Theodor Gebre Selassie and Max Kruse’s strikes in both intervals.
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 Darmstadt 98
Darmstadt’s chances of saving their campaign have gone even bleaker with another frustrating loss on the road. The visitors did their best to hold the home team, but a well-converted penalty kick in the 74th minute from Makoto Hasebe ruined everything for Darmstadt. Ante Rebic, meanwhile, added more misery to their hopeless Hesse rivals nine minutes later.
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