The last matches before the Bundesliga’s winter break.
December 20, 2016
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Augsburg
Ousmane Dembele 47’ Dong-Won Ji 33’
Borussia Dortmund once again came from a losing position to salvage a point, but once again massive points were dropped in a match that Dortmund entered as favorite.
Dominance on the pitch did not result in a victory for Dortmund against Augsburg. This result could see Dortmund out of the European competition spot ahead of the winter break.
A massive away point for Augsburg.
Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 Wolfsburg
Thorgan Hazard 52’ Daniel Caligiuri 3’
Mario Gomez 57’
About 5 minutes after his team lost an early first half lead, Mario Gomez scored the winning goal for Wolfsburg to get an away victory that should keep them out of the relegation zone as they go into the winter break
Hamburger SV 2-1 Schalke 04
Nicolai Muller 61’ Donis Avdijaj 90’
Bobby Shou Wood 82’
Schalke 04 might have gotten back to their form at the start of the Bundesliga season. Schalke has now gone four league matches without a victory, including three defeats.
Fortunately for Schalke, there isn’t any threat to their current position in the league standings.
Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 Mainz 05
Branimir Hrgota 18’ 85’
Aymen Barkok 75’
Frankfurt opened a 9-point gap between themselves and Mainz 05 through a home victory that enhanced their odds of going into the winter break in a spot on the league table that qualifies for a European competition.
December 21, 2016
Bayern Munich 3-0 RB Leipzig
Thiago Alcantara 17’
Xabi Alonso 25’
Robert Lewandowski 45’(pen)
After defeating their closest rival in the 2016/17 Bundesliga, Bayern Munich will go into the winter break with the most points on the league table.
Bayern Munich flexed their muscles and showed to newly promoted RB Leipzig the difficulty level of the top flight.
With Bayern Munich scoring three goals in the first half and RB Leipzig losing Emil Forsberg to a red card from a reckless tackle in an attempt to prevent Lahm from running the ball into the box for what looked could have looked like a goal scoring opportunity.
A 10-man Leipzig team that is three goals behind by the half-time had little to none chance of coming out with any point.
Is this the end of RB Leipzig title hopes? Probably not.
Losing to Bayern Munich is not a great indicator of weakness in the Bundesliga, so this might not be the end of RB Leipzig meteoric rise in the 2016/17 Bundesliga.
Hertha Berlin 2-0 Darmstadt
Marvin Plattenhardt 54’
Salomon Kalou 66’
Hertha Berlin will go into the winter break in third place in the Bundesliga table after giving Darmstadt their 8th consecutive league defeat.
Darmstadt remains at the bottom of the league table.
FC Koln 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Anthony Modeste 22’ Wendell 44’
A goal for each side in the first half maintained the four-point lead FC Koln has on Bayer Leverkusen in the league standings.
Ingolstadt 1-2 Freiburg
Markus Suttner 53’ Florian Niederlechner 34’ 41’
Ingolstadt was denied the opportunity to climb out of the relegation zone by Freiburg. Two goals in the towards the end final portions of the first half helped Freiburg to an away victory over FC Koln
Hoffenheim 1-1 Werder Bremen
Sandro Wagner 26’ Serge Gnabry 87’
Bundesliga goes into the winter break with Hoffenheim as the only team that remains undefeated after 16 rounds.
Despite being able to protect their undefeated run in the 2016/17 Bundesliga season, Hoffenheim was denied a victory when Serge Gnabry scored late to give Werder Bremen a point from this fixture.
