Three things we learnt from the Bundesliga Konferenz | OneFootball

Bundesliga Matchday 26 – Eight games left.

The matchday opened with a relegation scrap between St Pauli and Hoffenheim. The Hamburg natives saw off the visitors 1-0 to give them some breathing room on Bochum. While Hoffenheim are once again sucked straight back into the relegation fight.

Today, we saw a focus on the European spots with Mainz and Freiburg drawing 2-2, Wolfsburg losing to Augsburg 1-0, and Borussia Mönchengladbach beating Werder Bremen 4-2. Bayern were also in action against Union Berlin, but could only muster a draw in the capital.

Here is what we learnt:

No one wants to finish in the Champions League spots:

Mainz and Freiburg played out an exciting 2-2 draw, but after wins for Borussia Mönchengladbach and Augsburg, only seven points separates third and ninth. Before today, you would have said Mainz had a good chance of qualifying for the Champions League, but with only eight games remaining, it’s very difficult to point out who will step up and go on a run as they keep tripping up on one another.

Gladbach, despite their loss against Mainz last weekend, showed heart to not fully collapse after they threw away a two-goal lead against Werder Bremen. With a hat-trick from Alassane Plea and a goal from Minecraft streamer (I am going to milk this for as long as possible) Tim Kleindienst saw them win 4-2 and move up to sixth.

While Augsburg have now played themselves into being outsiders for a European sport, they have now kept six clean sheets in a row after a 1-0 win against Wolfsburg. #FinnDahmen4England

What the hell happened in Berlin*:

20% possession.

That is all Union needed to somehow, come away with a point against Bayern. Despite Steffen Baumgart being suspended, Die Eisenern put in a great defensive performance to move themselves seven points clear of the relegation battle.

The result was also a result of Bayern’s poor finishing. For the first 75 minutes Bayern resorted to pot shots as they struggled to break down Union’s block. They looked like they had come away with a ‘champions win’ (a win where you had to work hard for it) but a mistake from Jonas Urbig allowed Union to score an unlikely equaliser.

Bayern will have to hope that Stuttgart can do them a favour tomorrow evening, or things may begin to get a bit hot under the collar, especially with Bayern still competing in Europe.

(*Mikhail Gorbachev probably said this on the morning of November 10th 1989)

An ode to Dominik Kohr:

Why would I dedicate a specific section to a player who was red carded? You must be new around here.

24 games.

10 yellow cards.

1 red. (His first of the season!!)

Football Heritage.

A very strong argument could be made that Kohr is the dirtiest player in the Bundesliga. The amount of yellows he has been given does not correlate to the challenges he puts in, which says a lot. If we dive deeper into the disciplinary stats, in the ALL-TIME Bundesliga table, Kohr is second behind only Stefan Effenberg and when it comes to points, the 31-year-old is only 17 off the former Bayern midfielder.

If Mainz qualify for the Champions League, the likes of Kylian Mbappé, Lamine Yamal or Mohammed Salah will not know what hit them (literally) and the yellow card record in the Champions League.

Kohr may be in his Michael Jordan 91-93 era of picking up the most cards each season.

GGFN | Jack Meenan