Bundesliga

Matchday 18 Preview: the Bundesliga continues in style at Borussia-Park tonight

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Battle of the Borussias

An Englische Wochewith games on Tuesday and Wednesday has just concluded, and the Bundesliga shows no sign of stopping with Matchday 18 sending us into the second half of the 2020-21 season just two days after the last games in the German top-flight’s Hinrunde.

The weekend’s action starts in style at Borussia-Park on Friday night.

The Battle of the Borussias headlines the matchday as Borussia Mönchengladbach host Borussia Dortmund. The Foals have found form at the start of 2021 but have struggled against their namesakes from Dortmund in recent years. Gladbach have, in fact, failed to win any of their last 11 league matches against Dortmund -the longest winless run against any team in the club’s history.

Just one point separates the two sides with Die Schwarzgelben sitting fourth and Die Fohlen in seventh heading into the weekend. The high-profile matchups continue on Saturday when two top-six teams face-off at the BayArena with Bayer Leverkusen hosting VfL Wolfsburg.

Florian Wirtz capped a man-of-the-match display against Borussia Dortmund in the midweek fixture by becoming the youngest player to reach four career Bundesliga goals, aged 17 years, eight months and 17 days, deposing former teammate Kai Havertz in reaching the tally 83 days younger than the Chelsea man was. Previous record-holder Timo Werner, Havertz’s teammate in London, was 84 days shy of his 18th birthday.

RB Leipzig are in action on Saturday afternoon as they travel to 1. FSV Mainz 05, with the chance to close the gap to FC Bayern München at the top of the table to just one point overnight.

Meanwhile, SC Freiburg face VfB Stuttgart and FC Augsburg meet 1. FC Union Berlin -another team in the top-eight of the Bundesliga standings where just two points separate eighth and fourth at the midway point of the campaign.

DSC Arminia Bielefeld have found form at the bottom of the table taking 10 of their last 15 available points before they face Eintracht Frankfurt to round up the Saturday afternoon fixtures. The game could see Real Madrid loanee LukaJovic start for the first time since his return to Die Adler.

The Saturday evening fixture takes us to the German capital and a key meeting between two sides in the lower mid-table. Hertha Berlin welcome SV Werder Bremen to the Olympiastadion with the pair just two and three points above the relegation play-off spot respectively.

The first of the Sunday double-header sees bottom play top as FC Schalke 04 welcome Bayern to the Veltins-Arena. US teenager Matthew Hoppe has equalled top scorer Robert Lewandowski’s tally for 2021 so far with five goals from three games played.

Bayern’s No.9, however, has his eyes set on a bigger goal. With his penalty against Augsburg on Matchday 17, Lewandowski became the first and only player in the Bundesliga’s history to have scored 22 goals from the first 17 matches of a season, with Gerd Müller’s 40-goal record campaign in his sights.

The weekend concludes in Sinsheim where TSGHoffenheim face 1.FC Köln, who earned a vital last-minute win at Schalke on Wednesday evening which took them eight points clear of Mainz and the Royal Blues at the lower end of the table.

Jonathan Mckinstry owes himself a good tournament as much as he does Uganda

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