The memo, it appeared, was widely received. As the Bundesliga’s Hinrunde – the season’s first half – came to a close, there was plenty to offer succour for the four weeks ahead. There were 36 goals rattled in across the nine games and a swarm of clutch finishes that owed as much to Hollywood as they did to Berlin.
Augsburg, one of the surprise overachievers of the opening half, looked like finishing with a whimper as they went into the 90th minute 3-1 down at home to a revitalised Freiburg. No problem – two stoppage-time finishes from Alfred Finnbogason rescued an unlikely point.
At the Weserstadion, it was the 93rd minute when Fabien Frei slammed in a Mainz equaliser, wiping out what had been a 2-0 Werder Bremen lead in the first half against direct competitors at the bottom. Second-placed Schalke left it even later at Eintracht Frankfurt, where they had also trailed by two with only eight minutes left to go. Naldo, who scored perhaps the most celebrated late leveller of the season so far at Dortmund in the derby, left it until the 95th minute before making it 2-2 with a crafty finish.
Dortmund were at it, too, with Christian Pulisic’s smoothly taken winner in the 89th minute giving Peter Stöger another three points from a performance that was anything but. “Anyone can beat anyone,” wrote Suddeutsche Zeitung. “Apart from Bayern.”
As we moved into the winter break, it was almost possible to fantasise that Bayern are as susceptible to the tides as anyone else. Yet they always win, of course, and in this match-day of dramatic climaxes, they even grasped the most exciting of them for themselves to go with the 11-point lead they finished the weekend with. Going into injury time at Stuttgart they led, with substitute Thomas Müller having tucked away a smart strike with 12 minutes to go.
Then they leaned on the law of the ex. Sven Ulreich, facing the team he grew up with and played more than 200 first-team games for, plunged to his right to save Chadrac Akolo’s penalty, the penultimate touch of the game in Swabia. No wonder Ulreich, gaining increasing respect for the poise with which he is standing in for Manuel Neuer, remarked that he “couldn’t have written a better movie script”.
The save, though, doesn’t really tell the half of it. It had all started with a Bayern counterattack, with Arturo Vidal’s excellent pass setting James Rodríguez away. His effort was half-saved by Ron-Robert Zieler but the coup de grace looked inevitable when Robert Lewandowski swooped to follow up. Zieler, remarkably, raced back to complete a near-miraculous scrape off his own line. Thirty-seven seconds later, Niklas Süle’s clumsy swipe at Santiago Ascacibar gave Stuttgart their spot-kick shot at salvation.
Poor Akolo, who has had a very promising first half-season in the Bundesliga, was inconsolable. David Alaba and Vidal, sportingly, tried their best, though the 22-year-old still took to Instagram to apologise to team-mates and fans. Coach Hannes Wolf and defender Holger Badstuber – who had been denied a goal against his old club by another Ulreich save – both made it clear with their post-match comments this wasn’t necessary.
This was really all about Ulreich, though, a good goalkeeper who took a very specific career choice in joining Bayern in 2015 – not a choice that was particularly palatable to the Cannstatter Kurve, the area behind the goal at the Mercedes-Benz Arena where the Stuttgart ultras, who once so loved Ulreich, congregate. He was given short shrift throughout.
The reward for his heroics was a night at home in Stuttgart, a place where he still feels a firm affinity, while the rest of the squad travelled back to Munich. As Bayern get ready for the winter break, with just the not-inconsiderable matter of a DfB Pokal date with Dortmund to come on Wednesday, Jupp Heynckes seems to be cutting his team a bit of slack for the first time after whipping them into shape over the last few months. The whole squad had Sunday off.
After the whirlwind of Heynckes’ return, a few weeks for reflection will be welcome. The improvement from the last days of Carlo Ancelotti are clear but even with an 11-point lead – transformed from a five-point deficit behind Dortmund when the coach came back – it feels as if plenty of improvement is possible. “We are not so superior in terms of performance,” reflected Mats Hummels. “We’re just a bit more consistent.” Beneath Bayern it is much of a muchness, with only two points separating places two to six.
Some of that improvement might be through the January window. It is unlikely to be too spectacular, even if Uli Hoeness dangled the idea of breaking the club’s transfer record at a supporters’ club Christmas party at the weekend. “We are unable to buy a Neymar,” Hoeness told the members of Schiessamer Red-White Dynamite. “In those positions where we see a need, we will certainly make bigger transfers, and I think there will be transfers of 50, 60 or 70 million.”
Before they get there, Hoffenheim’s Sandro Wagner is set to arrive on a two-and-a-half-year deal this week, as the long-awaited cover to the overworked Lewandowski. It will be a moment of triumph for a 30-year-old who came through the Bayern youth ranks but was seen as a bit of a joke for years, before latterly reinventing himself as a centre-forward of substance and making a big impact for the national team. He, like Ulreich, can vouch that sometimes he who laughs last laughs longest.
Talking points
• It must be the holiday season as – remarkably, considering the nature of their implosion last week – Köln finally got their first win of the season. They beat Wolfsburg thanks to substitute Christian Clemens’s second-half goal but it should have been more, and their profligacy nearly cost them again. Timo Horn, who along with Clemens is the only player still at the club for their 2012 relegation, made a big save from Mario Gómez at the death. “If you’re only at 1-0, there’s going to be a nervous flutter at some point,” reasoned Horn, pleased it didn’t prove costly.
• Talking of repetitive behaviour, Hamburg join Köln in the automatic relegation places over Christmas after Friday’s defeat at Mönchengladbach. You know the script. After conceding early to Thorgan Hazard, HSV played well, equalised through ex-Gladbach forward André Hahn, and then promptly shot themselves in the foot, Raffael scoring twice, leaving Der Dino in their lowest spot at the winter break in 11 years. “In the vast majority of cases, individual mistakes cost us dearly,” said coach Markus Gisdol. “We could have eight to 10 more points, which is unbelievable.” Yet very believable. Meanwhile that late Fabian Frei goal means Werder take Mainz’s place in the relegation play-off spot for the best part of the next month at least.
• Hertha, having looked like they might get sucked into the battle at the bottom, are in mid-table wonderland after an excellent win at Leipzig. That they did so despite young defender Jordan Torunarigha’s early red card was highly impressive, with the excellent Davie Selke netting a smart double on his return to his former club. Leipzig had kicked off knowing a win would send them into second place, but defeat leaves them outside the top four.
• No such problems for Dortmund, up to third after Peter Stöger made it two out of two. The pragmatism he has brought to the side has been welcomed and he appears to be a crowd favourite already, even though Hoffenheim – and coach Julian Nagelsmann, heavily linked with being his successor – played much of the football. “Don’t sit on the wrong bench by mistake,” Stöger had whispered to Nagelsmann with a grin as they walked out before kick-off, displaying much of the charm that makes him so popular. In other good news for BVB, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looks set sign a contract extension to 2021.
• Leverkusen complete the Christmas top four but it could and should have been more. They led twice during Sunday’s 4-4 draw at Hannover, for whom Julian Korb snaffled the final equaliser just at the point when it looked as if Die Werkself were taking a decisive hold. Much of that had been down to the electrifying Leon Bailey, who came on at half-time to score twice and take his tally to six goals and four assists in only 10 starts. The young Jamaican has been one of the stars of the campaign so far.
Results Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1 Hamburg, Augsburg 3-3 Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund 2-1 Hoffenheim, Cologne 1-0 Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Schalke, Stuttgart 0-1 Bayern Munich, Werder Bremen 2-2 Mainz, Hannover 4-4 Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig 2-3 Hertha Berlin.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bayern Munich | 17 | 26 | 41 |
| 2 | Schalke 04 | 17 | 7 | 30 |
| 3 | Borussia Dortmund | 17 | 15 | 28 |
| 4 | Bayer Leverkusen | 17 | 11 | 28 |
| 5 | RB Leipzig | 17 | 2 | 28 |
| 6 | Borussia M'gladbach | 17 | -1 | 28 |
| 7 | TSG Hoffenheim | 17 | 5 | 26 |
| 8 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 17 | 2 | 26 |
| 9 | Augsburg | 17 | 4 | 24 |
| 10 | Hertha Berlin | 17 | 1 | 24 |
| 11 | Hannover 96 | 17 | -2 | 23 |
| 12 | Wolfsburg | 17 | 0 | 19 |
| 13 | SC Freiburg | 17 | -14 | 19 |
| 14 | VfB Stuttgart | 17 | -8 | 17 |
| 15 | Mainz | 17 | -9 | 17 |
| 16 | Werder Bremen | 17 | -7 | 15 |
| 17 | Hamburg | 17 | -10 | 15 |
| 18 | Cologne | 17 | -22 | 6 |
