Weekend Preview: Matchday 18

After just 25 days the Bundesliga returns from the shortest winter break since 1978/1979. It’s only an experiment for the current and next season by the DFL. Enjoy it while it lasts – less than six weeks. The short break coincides with an unusually deep winter, so snow and frozen pitches could take away from the entertainment level of the games. A couple of interesting matches will be on the menu nonetheless.

Friday, 20.30h CET
Bayern Munich – Hoffenheim

The last time the two teams met on a wintry Friday night, Bayern Munich were the title holding Goliath and Hoffenheim everybody’s favorite David, in what was the most ridiculously overhyped Bundesliga match in recent memory. None of the two eventually won anything that season and a little over a year later, this fixture has been shrunk back to the size of a rather normal Bundesliga match. One which still promises to be an entertaining opener for the second half of the Bundesliga season. Bayern will have momentum and an almost fully fit squad – except for the usual Ribery absence – on their side. Hoffenheim will be without Obasi and Vorsah (Africa Cup of Nations), Luiz Gustavo (red card) and possibly Carlos Eduardo, who may not be fully fit in time for the match. Hoffenheim stumbled into the winter break after being thoroughly outplayed and defeated by Stuttgart. Three points for Bayern will be the expected outcome, but maybe Hoffenheim can make a statement with a positive result, after all the club still has ambitions to crash into the European spots this season.

Saturday, 15.30h CET
Leverkusen – Mainz
Mönchengladbach – Bochum
Frankfurt – Bremen
Hamburg – Freiburg
Hannover – Berlin

Plenty of opportunities to stumble and drop points for Leverkusen, Bremen and Hamburg, while Hannover welcomes Berlin for the first of Berlin’s 17 relegation play-offs. Hannover themselves struggled to find their form in the league, following Robert Enke’s suicide, seeing them slide into the relegation zone as well.

Saturday, 18.30h CET
Stuttgart – Wolfsburg

Based on their squad and recent form, Stuttgart would make a formidable contender for the Europa League spots, but following their disastrous Hinrunde, Christian Gross’ side will have to settle for a midtable finish. The least they can do though, is rain on the parade of a quite a few Europa hopefuls starting with Wolfsburg on Saturday. Based on Wolfsburg’s displays in last weekend’s Wintercup, their defensive frailties are pretty much intact and there for all the other teams to exploit. It looks like Wolfsburg plans to bring in some expensive defensive reinforcements in the next days/weeks, but they won’t help Armin Veh’s team on Saturday.

I plan to liveblog this one, to celebrate the end of the Bundesliga’s winter break.

Sunday, 15.30 CET
Schalke – Nuremberg

Schalke welcome Nuremberg to their not-quite snow-proof Arena. Nuremberg brought in some Bayern benchwarmers to shore up the defense. Schalke brought in one Bayern benchwarmer to be able contribute a bit more than counter attacks to a game. Though, Alexander Baumjohann looks set to miss the match with a broken finger.

Sunday, 17.30 CET
Cologne – Dortmund

The masters of the 0-0 draw welcome Dortmund, to give them a serious test of their top of the table credentials – though they will have to do it without Pedro Geromel, who is out with a cold. Injured or otherwise unavailable Cologne defenders usually equal good news for the neutral fan, who just wants to watch some football.

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Category: Data