Three things we learnt from the Bundesliga afternoon kick-offs | OneFootball

Bundesliga Matchday 25, single digit games left, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT.

On Saturday afternoon, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund all lost to Bochum, Werder Bremen and Augsburg at home. While Holstein Kiel drew with VfB Stuttgart, and St.Pauli also ended level with Wolfsburg.

Here is what we learnt:

Bochum take another step towards safety:

Get your favourite speaker, open your favoured music streaming app, choose ‘Bochum’ by Herbert Grönemeyer and turn that up to max. WOW

For the first time since 1991, Bochum have beaten Bayern, IN MUNICH. Before this game, Bochum had not scored in Munich either in 15 years. All that was ended today.

However, it did not look like any of this was going to happen as within 30 minutes Bayern were 2-0 up and it looked like it was going to be a procession, but Bochum would score from a corner and then João Palhinha was sent off just before halftime giving the visitors some hope. The best possible thing could happen to Bochum just after half-time when they would score again from a corner to level it. Then after a non-penalty call against Bayern, the Ruhr natives went down the other end to take an unlikely lead.

A heroic performance from the Bochum defence and Timo Horn then helped secure the unlikely win. The win takes Bochum within two points of 15th place. It continues to show the great work that Dieter Hecking has done since he took charge with wins against Dortmund and Bayern as well as a draw with Leverkusen.

Bochum are more than likely the favourites to escape relegation right now.

Bayer Leverkusen struggle to close the gap to Bayern Munich:

If you wanted an explanation of this season in a nutshell, this weekend was it. Leverkusen’s inability to beat smaller teams has meant Bayern face zero repercussions. A perfect chance for Leverkusen to close the gap to five points, but they, again, like on Wednesday, shit the bed.

Toothless, Leverkusen once again struggled to create anything meaningful in front of goal. The best chance came from Aleix Garcia who hit the crossbar from a free-kick but apart from that die Werkself provided nothing. To make matters worse, Florian Wirtz was substituted on after half-time and then subbed off due to an injury. On top of this, Leverkusen were also poor defensively, they handed Bremen the opening goal, but after that they were far too open and were lucky that Bremen were unable to make matters worse. The visitors just wanted the win more, and I mean a lot more, than Leverkusen.

In the space of a week, Leverkusen’s season is on the verge of collapse.

Although the gap between first and second has not changed, it will feel like a massive loss.

Finn Dahmen – England call-up?

Here me out, England’s pool of goalkeepers who can actually compete for a starting spot is very small. On the contrary, Germany’s pool of goalkeepers is very large and with Julian Nagelsmann likely to favour Alexander Nübel and potentially Robin Zentner and Stefan Ortega in the March international break, on top of Oliver Baumann, Kevin Trapp and Marc-André ter Stegen, the path to the German national team is not clear.

Dahmen is eligible for England through his mother, who is…English.

Now, I am not just saying this for the sake of it. There is reasoning.

During Augsburg’s 1-0 win against Dortmund, Dahmen passed 500 minutes without conceding a goal. Only 29 other goalkeepers have done things in the Bundesliga. The 26-year-old has shown that he is a very good shot stopper and also has the ability to play like a modern keeper. Dahmen was once considered a future number one and was part of Germany’s Euro under-21 winners in 2021, but struggled for game time at Mainz, but before moving to Augsburg, he stopped Dortmund from winning the title with a strong performance on that fateful day in May.

Considering that Thomas Tuchel is German, this could be an outsider call for a call-up soon.

(I will not mention Dortmund any more, it may become bullying. Forget what I said last week. Today’s loss was comical)

GGFN | Jack Meenan