Pandemic Champion Race: What You Need to Know About the Bundesliga Season Resumption

Risk of infection and high invasiveness

The Bundesliga has become for fans around the world a symbol of the return of big football after the coronavirus pandemic. Germany decided to be the first in Europe to resume the national championship - the matches of the 26th round of the Bundesliga will be held May 16-18.

However, talking about the final victory over COVID-19 in Germany is premature. Since May 4, the softening of quarantine measures has begun in Germany, but over the past week, according to WHO data, 5,852 people fell ill in the country (558 died).

Among the diseased there are football players. So, in early May, two Cologne players and a team doctor passed a positive test for coronavirus. Despite this, the team continued training. According to media reports, also two cases of the disease were identified in another team of the elite division - the Mönchengladbach Borussia.

In the second Bundesliga, the Erzgebirge and Dresden Dynamo left for quarantine due to positive tests on COVID-19. The match of the latter with Hannover 96 has already been postponed.

Thus, the players continue to become infected with the coronavirus, although the season did not even have time to resume. If the epidemiological situation in the country worsens, the players will probably have to focus on training again. And if in such a situation the season can be brought to an end, this will already be a major achievement.

To avoid a negative scenario, the German football leadership introduced the most stringent restrictions. At each meeting, no more than 322 people will be able to attend, of which only 98 will be on or near the field. Cannot get into the arena and the mascot of “Cologne” goat Hennes IX. According to the rules, animals will not be allowed into the stadiums.

However, in this situation, the health of football players will be threatened not only by the risk of coronavirus infection, but also by excessive physical exertion. After a protracted quarantine, the players received a little less than a month for training, many classes were limited.

The teams will have to play nine games in six weeks. The season should end on June 27th. Obviously, in this mode, players will be especially prone to muscle injuries. The first “victims” of the extreme set of form were the midfielders of the Dortmund Borussia Emre Jan and Axel Witsel, who damaged the back of the thigh. Both will miss the Ruhr derby with Schalke 04.

Wolfsburg defender Yannick Gerhardt was seriously injured at the very first team training after quarantine ended. However, in his case we are talking more about bad luck - the player is diagnosed with a fracture of a face bone after a collision with his head with a teammate.

The fight for gold and tickets to the Champions League

Despite all the risks, the ending of the season in Germany should turn out to be fascinating, because a desperate struggle is taking place on almost all floors of the tournament table. We are talking about including the battle for the championship. Bayern Munich, having won the national championship seven times in a row, lost a lot of points in the fall and provided Leipzig with a chance to break ahead.

However, after the departure of Robert Kovacs and the appointment of Hans-Dieter Flick as the assistant coach of the Croatian team, the affairs of Munich went smoothly, and they returned to the winning track. “Leipzig”, the leader who finished the first round, on the contrary, began to misfire after misfire. In 2020, the wards of Julian Nagelsman won only three victories in eight rounds and fell to third place.

Dortmund Borussia rose to the second line, having risen after the arrival of striker Erling Holand. At the moment, the black and yellow gap from Bayern is only four points, and there’s no reason to talk about the end of the gold race. Do not discount the Leipzig, which is located at a distance of five points from the leader.

Moreover, it is the Nagelsman team that has the most comfortable calendar among the teams of the first three. He is waiting for a meeting entirely with opponents from the second half of the standings, if you do not take into account the home confrontation with the Dortmund in the penultimate round. Borussia still has a duel with Bayern, which could be key in the battle for the title.

A fierce fight will also go for trips to the Champions League for next season. Nine rounds to the finish line five teams claim for them. In addition to the three already mentioned, these are the Monchengladbach Borussia and Bayer. The rest are behind the fourth place by 12 points or more and have practically no chance to qualify for the main European Cup.

Thus, one of the first five teams will be determined by one extra, which will fall only into the Europa League. However, it is undesirable to take the fourth place, which will become a pass to the Champions League qualification, because it is not known in what format Eurocups will be held in the 2020/21 season. According to media reports, due to an extremely overloaded calendar, UEFA could greatly reduce qualifications or even cancel it. In order not to stay on the sidelines, it is advisable to directly get into the group stage, that is, finish in the top three.

The plight of the "Bremen"

But the struggle to maintain registration in the top division this season is not so intense as usual. Two outsiders were identified who risk leaving the Bundesliga - Werder Bremen and Paderborn-07. And if a team from the city of the same name was simply not ready for a performance in the elite, then the Bremen risk for the first time in 30 years to leave the Bundesliga. They are four points behind the 16th place, which gives the right to participate in butt games, and eight points behind the saving 15th. At the same time, the Bremen club has a game in stock.

In 1980, the team took 17th place in the elite, which is located now. Then the eminent team returned to the Bundesliga on the first attempt, and already in 1983 won the silver of the national championship.

In recent years, Bremen were far from fighting for medals and basically finished in the middle of the tournament table. In the current season, the green rightfully are in the relegation zone. The wards of Florian Kofeldt scored the least (27 goals), miss most (55) and have only four wins.

Only 41-year-old veteran Claudio Pissaro, who is still on the field, gives reason for pride to the fans of the team. Currently, the Peruvian ranks fourth in the list of the oldest football players in the history of the Bundesliga and sixth in the list of top scorers with an asset of 197 goals.

Holand's youthful enthusiasm and Lewandowski's cold calculation

The Bundesliga's most debated footballer is Erling Holland. The 19-year-old striker, who showed incredible performance in the Austrian “Salzburg”, continued to score a lot in the Dortmund “Borussia”, which acquired him in the winter for only € 20 million. In the first three rounds of the German championship, Holand managed to distinguish himself seven times. Erling then slowed down a little and in the last two matches of the Bundesliga left the field without a goal.

Nevertheless, the Norwegian youthful enthusiasm helped the yellow-blacks return to the fight for the championship, as well as to impose the PSG fight in the 1/8 final of the Champions League (in Dortmund the double of the striker allowed the German team to win).

In the Bundesliga, the striker currently has nine goals in eight games and in the remaining meetings he can try to reach the mark of 20 accurate shots, which will be an incredible result for the 19-year-old player.

But to fight with Robert Lewandowski for the victory in the scorer race is still unrealistic. The goalkeeper of the Bayern Munich has already 25 goals, and for the first time in his career he can score more than 30 goals in a season in the Bundesliga. In the recent history of the tournament, only Pierre-Emerik Obmayeang managed this. The performance record still belongs to Gerd Müller, who scored 40 times in the 1971/72 season.