Bundesliga: Bayern on course for their 11th consecutive title after Dortmund dropped all three points to RB Leipzig

(Football news) Bayern went onto win their ninth game of the season against high flying Freiburg as Dortmund slumped to their third defeat of the season after RB Leipzig produced a clinical performance. There 23 matches still to play but a lack of realistic title challengers this season means that this season the title race is a one team procession again.

Bayern defeated Freiburg 2-1 as Robert Lewandowski scored his 60th goal of the year to sink Freiburg’s unbeaten run in the league. Julian Nagelsmann’s side started the first half in dominant fashion, Niklas Sule and Leroy Sane spurned very good chances before Thomas Mueller unselfishly passed the ball to Leon Goretzka who gave Bayern a much deserved lead in the 30th minute. In the second half the visitors sat back and soaked up pressure from Bayern but in the 75th minute Lewandowski netted a second after some smart work down the left from Alphonso Davis, although Freiburg scored a consolation goal through Janik Haberer it wasn’t enough to stay unbeaten. With this result Bayern top the league table with 28 points from 11 games, four points ahead of second-placed.

Leon Goretzka said, “We shouldn't forget that we played against a good team today. The most important thing was to win the game, which we did. It was incredibly important to score the second goal, because you can always concede at any time. Our goal was to win today as it's the last game before the international break. It wasn't a good feeling when we lost just before the last international break. Therefore we are very happy today”

Bayern manager Julian Nagelsmann said: "In my opinion, he is still the best goalkeeper in the world. It was remarkable how he saved us… it doesn't look like he's 35 years old. I think we deserved the win, even though the first 10 minutes weren't good. Freiburg defended well and put a lot of pressure. The second goal was a relief. In the end we conceded an unfortunate goal

Borussia Dortmund's four match winning streak came to an end after they lost 2-1 to Rb Leipzig, Jesse Marsch s side arguably produced their best performance of the season. In the first half Leipzig opened the scoring through in form Christopher Nkunku in the 29th minute after Nkunku made a well-timed run to get on the end of Josko Gvardiol’s pass and found the net. In the second half RB Leipzig started in similar fashion, but it was Dortmund who struck the next blow after Thomas Meunier threaded a lovely ball for Marco Reus, who scored past Gulacsi with a composed finish. Dortmund couldn’t hold the host for too long as Yousef Poulsen hammered the ball in the back of the net after a low cross from Nkunku to make it 2-1.

This result was a massive blow for Marco Rose’s side as they are now 4 points behind leaders Bayern with 24 points from 11 matches, for Leipzig they moved up to fifth in the table with 18 points.Jesse Marsch after the match said, “It was important that we were rewarded for our hard work, coach. We've been playing well in past weeks but haven't got the right results. We could definitely have scored more goals and made it easier for ourselves”.

Marco Reus after the disappointing result said, “We knew beforehand that Leipzig were going to be even more aggressive than under their former coach. The second half was better, but overall it was too little. In the end, we ran out of energy after the last few weeks. We didn’t deserve to win because we won fewer duels, because we forced fewer scoring chances. In the second half we switched to a back four, which suits us better as we’re more active than in a back five and we have an extra man to press with. The second half was better; we were more aggressive, equalised to make it 1-1 but then conceded a stupid goal for 2-1. It was too simple.”

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