Bundesliga Roundup: 5 Star Bayern Win in Style, Schalke Sink Deeper Into Trouble, Hertha Continue to Climb & More
By Max Cooper
The Premier League and Serie A may have announced their return to action in June, but all eyes remain firmly fixed on the twists and turns of this exciting Bundesliga campaign.
The title race may have been all-but put to bed in midweek, following Bayern's 1-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund, coupled with all the other top five clubs failing to win, but there is still plenty left to play for this season.
There is the small matter of Champions League and Europa League spots still to be decided, and of course, there is an almighty scrap developing as several struggling teams desperately try to avoid the dreaded drop.
With that in mind, 90min is on hand to give you the all-important roundup of Saturday's Bundesliga action.
We start on Friday evening, where Bayer Leverkusen bounced back to winning ways, as starlet Kai Havertz proved to be the difference once more in their 1-0 victory over Freiburg.
Despite being off-balance, the German wonderkid squeezed the ball home from the tightest of angles, and his second-half strike was enough to claim all three points in his side's quest for Champions League qualification.
In Saturday's evening kickoff, Bayern romped home in emphatic style, destroying Fortuna Dusseldorf 5-0 at the Allianz Arena and taking one step closer to their eighth consecutive league title. The German champions played some scintillating football over the 90 minutes, and broke the deadlock after a quarter of an hour, thanks to a fortunate own goal.
Robert Lewandowski makes it 3-0. He's now scored against every single current Bundesliga club ? pic.twitter.com/vjDe5srffG
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) May 30, 2020
From that moment on, Bayern never looked back. Benjamin Pavard doubled the tally with a lovely header, and Robert Lewandowski rounded off a sensational team move to make it three. The Polish star got his second of the game just after the break, and Alphonso Davies sealed the scoring with their fifth goal of the evening. A display of champions.
If there's one man who is already sick of football, then it's David Wagner. The Schalke manager is living on borrowed time, after his team suffered a fourth straight defeat since returning to action, this time in a 1-0 loss to Werder Bremen.
Another defeat for Schalke, without a win in their last 11 #Bundesliga matches
— Unibet (@unibet) May 30, 2020
With fans calling for his head, 25 goals conceded in that run and only three scored, David Wagner cuts a lonely figure pic.twitter.com/eZVk8UTY0j
It was another limp performance from the struggling Royal Blues, and the game was eventually decided by a wonderful, curling strike by Leonardo Bittencourt just after the half-hour mark.
If Wagner and Schalke are wishing football would disappear again, then Hertha are enjoying the fruits of our beautiful game. Hertha looked destined for a relegation scrap before the pause in the fixture list, but their 2-0 win over Augsburg has left them dreaming of European football next season.
Javairo Dilrosun handed the hosts the lead early on, and after surviving wave after wave of Augsburg pressure, Krzystof Piatek confirmed all three points in injury time, by rounding off a clinical counter-attack.
Elsewhere, Wolfsburg's Europa league ambitions took a hit at the expense of Eintracht Frankfurt, after the visitors snatched a late 2-1 win to ease their own relegation fears. Andre Silva put Eintracht into the lead from the penalty spot in the first half, but Wolfsburg equalised then through Swiss star Kevin Mbabu.
But with both teams pushing for a winner, it was Eintracht who struck gold, when Daichi Kamada raced onto a Bas Dost knock-down to slot home on 85 minutes. The visitors then held on to the three points, even after being reduced to ten men following Lucas Torro's dismissal.
Tor 0:1 Bebou ??? #M05TSG pic.twitter.com/utxeYNBYfE
— FräuleinTSG (@SchmidtFraulein) May 30, 2020
And Hoffenheim capitalised on Wolfsburg's slip-up, after they deepened Mainz's relegation issues with a hard-fought 1-0 away win. In a first half packed with incident and drama - which saw seven yellow cards and a missed penalty by Steven Zuber - Hoffenheim struck the decisive winner through substitute Ihlas Bebou.
This victory puts Die Kraichgauer level on points with Wolfsburg, as the duo battle it out for the final Europa League qualification spot.
Results: