Three things we learnt from the Wednesday evening games in the Bundesliga | OneFootball

After last night’s eventful Tuesday games, the Bundesliga ‘English week’ returned for part two tonight with Bochum beating St Pauli 1-0 with a relegation scrap to kick off the evening. Bayern Munich comfortably beat 5-0 Hoffenheim to regain their four-point lead, Union Berlin lost 2-0 to fellow strugglers Augsburg, Werder Bremen drew 3-3 Heidenheim and in the marquee game of the evening, VfB Stuttgart beat RB Leipzig 2-1.

Here are the three things we learnt:

Bochum give themselves life in the fight for safety:

On the penultimate match day of the year, Bochum had yet to win a game. Now only two games into the year they have won three after their draw against Union had been overturned for a win (pending an appeal from Union) and have given themselves a real chance at survival. They are only three points off of 15th-placed Hoffenheim and continue to build momentum and with a set of favourable fixtures on the horizon as well as a favourable run to end the season, survival is now a real possibility and not just a pipe dream.

Dieter Hecking has helped sure up the defence at the Ruhrstadion (early thrashings aside) and everyone seems to be pulling in the same direction. Bochum could mimic Mainz from last season, who somehow escaped relegation.

Hoffenheim and Union Berlin sink into the relegation fight:

Hoffenheim was already there, this just saved me from making a separate thing about them, but they are to put it lightly, crap. This Sturm Graz 2.0 project is clearly not working, Christian Ilzer has not made the team any better than Pellegrino Matarazzo, so this suggests that it is a deeper issue and the mass departures in in the office during the summer show that the club is slowly rotting from the inside out. They have the quality to avoid relegation, but whether they can fight off this decline is yet to be seen. If they do go down, there will be another Baden-based team to replace them *KSC OLÉ OLÉ plays in the distance*.

Union Berlin are now only three points off of the relegation places. Although it has only been two games, the decision to sack Bo Svensson and replace him with Steffen Baumgart does not make any sense, especially as the last time Baumgart was in this type of situation he was sacked. With the current Union squad, Urs Fischer took them as far as possible when they qualified for the Champions League, but once it went downhill for him the real quality of the squad was shown, and it is probably only a matter of time before they do end up getting relegated, after saving themselves on the final day last season.

(Lothar Mätthaus I will always remember you said Rani Khedria should be a part of Germany’s squad for the 2022 World Cup)

Deniz Undav makes VfB Stuttgart tick:

Stuttgart win two games in a row in the league for the first time this season, Deniz Undav plays in both of them after his injury. Coincidence, I think not. The 28-year-old was always likely to be given the reigns of the attack after the departure of Serhou Guirassy in the summer and his recent injury layoff has seemed to have rejuvenated him. He was close to his best today as he assisted Jacob Bruun Larsen’s leveller and created the most join chances in the game (2).

Stuttgart also climbed into fifth in the league and are only one point behind today’s opponents. If Stuttgart wants to not only qualify for the playoffs of the Champions League but also potentially even make Europe’s premier competition again, Undav will be key.

Nick Woltemade also deserves a mention. The 22-year-old has really come into his own this season, with seven goals and two assists in 15 games and he just looks like a unicorn with how big and lanky he is the way he moves and the technique he possesses. He could easily be the future replacement for Kai Havertz in the national team.

As Niklas Levinsohn says ‘Big Nick Energy’

See you for the second half of the season (Friday).

GGFN | Jack Meenan