In this weekly feature, hosts of the Gegenpressing podcast Stefan Bienkowski and Manu Veth face off with their predictions for the forthcoming Bundesliga matchday fixtures. It’s three points for a correct score and one point for a correct result. Who will come out on top at the end of the season?
Manu’s Game of the Week: FC Köln vs Bayer Leverkusen
My match of the week is Köln against Leverkusen. As it is always the case, this is only a Rheinderby if Köln win it. By that measure, Sunday’s fixture will be just a normal Bundesliga game as I expect Leverkusen to walk away with all three points. Despite the gap in quality, however, this should be a really interesting game. Köln will try to stick it to Leverkusen and Florian Wirtz, who abandoned the Billy Goats and joined Die Werkself at a young age. Then there is the fact that Köln could provide a stumbling stone on Leverkusen’s path to Die Meisterschaft. In other words, lots of story lines that makes this a must watch game on the weekend.
Manu’s Predictions:
Freiburg 1-2 Bayern Munich; Union Berlin 2-1 Borussia Dortmund; Mainz 1-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach; Bochum 1-1 RB Leipzig; Heidenheim 1-1 Eintracht Frankfurt; Darmstadt 1-1 Augsburg; Wolfsburg 1-2 Stuttgart; FC Köln 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen; Hoffenheim 1-2 Werder Bremen.
Stefan’s Game of the Week: Union Berlin vs Borussia Dortmund
Although Union Berlin may not be making an obvious assault on the top half of the table just yet, most German football fans would be wise to keep an eye on the capital club. Just four clubs have picked up more points than Nenad Bjelica’s side in the last five matchdays and a particularly strong run at home suggests that Borussia Dortmund’s trip to Berlin should be extremely difficult. So much so, that I suspect Edin Terzic and his side will fail to take any points from the game and continue their notable downturn in form.
Stefan’s Predictions:
Freiburg 1-2 Bayern Munich; Union Berlin 2-1 Borussia Dortmund; Mainz 1-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach; Bochum 1-0 RB Leipzig; Heidenheim 2-1 Eintracht Frankfurt; Darmstadt 0-1 Augsburg; Wolfsburg 1-2 Stuttgart; FC Köln 0-2 Bayer Leverkusen; Hoffenheim 1-2 Werder Bremen.
Scores after MD23: Manu – 142, Stefan – 153
GGFN x Manuel Veth & Stefan Bienkowski
