5 Talking Points from Matchweek 13 of the Bundesliga
Matchday 13 in the Bundesliga ended on Sunday evening with plenty of action throughout the weekend including upsets, goals and some morale-boosting victories.
Schalke headed into the weekend six points behind Bayern Munich and there was the small matter of the Revierderby to deal with not to mention the action at the bottom end of the table where Cologne are yet to win in 13 games.
It appears VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is always a talking point each matchday, there have simply been too many talking points across the nine Bundesliga fixtures this weekend, where VAR makes the headlines for various reasons.
#1 An early relegation six-pointer
While the game of the day may have been the Revierderby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke, many eyes were glued events at the Schwarzwald-Stadion as SC Freiburg took on Mainz in a relegation six-pointer.
Heading into the fixture, Freiburg – coached by the lovable Christian Streich – were sitting in 17th place, a stark contrast from their seventh-place finish in the 2016/17 campaign that saw them qualify for the Europa League.
Streich and Freiburg have failed to recover from their early European exit and went into the game on a poor run of form.
With Florian Niederlechner out, it was up to former Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen forward Nils Petersen to lead the line for Freiburg, something which he did very well.
The 28-year-old has had a slow start to the 2017/18 campaign in contrast to his form last season but his opening goal against Mainz went some way to securing a win for the Baden-Wurttemberg club.
Florian Kath doubled Freiburg’s lead in the 90th minute before Emil Berggreen pulled a goal back for the visitors in added time, although it was a little too late.
All in all, Freiburg gave fans the performance they had desperately needed while Streich & Co. will be hoping to carry their form over to next weekend’s fixture against Hamburg.