By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
@GettyImages.
A brilliant Bundesliga season so far has now officially reached its halfway point, and some fascinating ties lie ahead this weekend as teams jostle for position at both ends of the table.
After their nail-biting last-minute 1-0 win at FC Augsburg last weekend, Bayer 04 Leverkusen face another tough task to preserve their lead over FC Bayern München at the top of the table when they visit RB Leipzig on Saturday evening. Having resumed the season with a 1-0 home loss to Eintracht Frankfurt, Marco Rose’s side will be determined to land a better result against Xabi Alonso’s league leaders to boost their standing in the battle to secure a spot in the top four.
Should Leverkusen win and extend their unbeaten record in 2023-24 to 27 games, they would move seven points clear of Bayern before the champions host SV Werder Bremen on Sunday afternoon. After some fine finishing from Jamal Musiala (twice) and Harry Kane in a 3-0 win over TSG Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga’s first match after the winter break, Thomas Tuchel’s men will be confident of taking another win at the Allianz Arena. Kane will also want to build further on his staggering record of 22 goals this season to stay on pace to potentially break Robert Lewandowski’s all-time record for goals in a Bundesliga season (41).
Eric Dier could make his first Bayern appearance against Bremen, while the return of his England international teammate Jadon Sancho on loan appears to have boosted Borussia Dortmund, who took a 3-0 win at SV Darmstadt 98 on Saturday. Dortmund visit an 1. FC Köln side desperate for points to lift them out of the bottom two this weekend. Timo Schultz guided the Billy Goats to a 1-1 draw against 1. FC Heidenheim 1846 in his first game in the Cologne dugout last weekend and would clearly love to claim his maiden Bundesliga win for his new side against last year’s runners-up.
Darmstadt are bottom of the table currently and face a tricky encounter at home to near neighbours Frankfurt – whose win in Leipzig was their third victory in four Bundesliga matches. 1. FSV Mainz 05 in 16th against 1. FC Union Berlin in 15th kicks off the weekend’s action on Friday evening in what promises to be a keenly contested six-pointer with two other recently appointed coaches looking to make their mark in Jan Seiwert and Nenad Bjelica.
VfL Bochum 1848 kept a six-point cushion over the bottom three with a 1-1 draw against Werder last Sunday, and they have a chance to keep or extend that – depending on Friday’s result – and potentially overtake Bremen by the end of the weekend. A result will be required for that against VfB Stuttgart, who will be hoping to get back to the sensational form before the winter break that took them into the top four after losing 3-1 at Borussia Mönchengladbach in their first match of 2024.
That result leaves Gladbach in 10th and eying the chance to move into the top half of the table. A win at home to Augsburg on Sunday afternoon would give them another boost.
The side currently a point and a position ahead of Gladbach, Heidenheim, host the team just below them, VfL Wolfsburg, on Saturday. The sides in seventh and eighth, SC Freiburg and Hoffenheim, are also to clash at the same time in what should be an intriguing weekend for the middle of the table too.
This weekend also marks the return of Bundesliga 2 from its winter slumber, and it does so with a big one as fallen giants FC Schalke 04 – currently languishing at the wrong end of the table – host Hamburger SV on Saturday evening. HSV spent the winter break outside of the automatic promotion places, two points behind city rivals FC St. Pauli, who resume at home to 1. FC Kaiserslautern. League leaders Holstein Kiel get the second division action back under way with one of two Friday fixtures at home to former Bundesliga champions Eintracht Braunschweig.