{"id":545369,"date":"2020-03-10T05:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T09:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/?p=545369"},"modified":"2020-03-10T05:57:15","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T09:57:15","slug":"bundesliga-title-race-bayern-open-up-a-five-point-lead-over-rb-leipzig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2020\/03\/10\/bundesliga-title-race-bayern-open-up-a-five-point-lead-over-rb-leipzig\/","title":{"rendered":"Bundesliga Title Race: Bayern Munich Open Up a Five Point Lead Over RB Leipzig"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Bundesliga title race began as a four-horse race between <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/clubs\/bayern-munich\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bayern Munich<\/a>, RB Leipzig, Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, and Borussia Dortmund. For a moment, even FC Schalke 04 were in the discussion. Not even the most ardent of optimists, however, believed that this title drama could last into May. After the winter break, the top of the table has since narrowed; Schalke have dropped off, while Bayer Leverkusen have surged. Leipzig began the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R\u00fcckrunde <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">on top, but have since dropped eleven points. After this weekend&#8217;s disappointing draw, they now trail league leaders Bayern by five points. Under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/hans-dieter-flick\/profil\/trainer\/67\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hansi-Flick<\/a>, Bayern are in amazing form. Their next three league fixtures will determine if Germany&#8217;s record champions will win the title for the eighth year running.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Bundesliga Title Race: Bayern Open Up a Five Point Lead Over RB Leipzig<\/h2>\n<h3>Bayern Are in Their Best Form of the Season<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bayern have been on fire this year. Their <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R\u00fcckrunde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> began with a four-nill win at Hertha BSC, a five-nil win at home against Schalke, and then a three-one win away at Mainz 04. The league leaders then played out a dull, scoreless draw against RB Leipzig. Bayern responded brilliantly with four consecutive victories. Flick&#8217;s men have dropped just two points this year, an incredible turnaround from their horrid start under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/niko-kovac\/profil\/trainer\/10463\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Niko Kova\u010d<\/a>. Meanwhile, RB Leipzig have dropped eleven points since January, showing that under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/julian-nagelsmann\/profil\/trainer\/8402\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Julian Nagelsmann<\/a>\u2019s leadership, the squad might not have quite the consistency just yet to compete with Bayern into May.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Dortmund are Surging<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dortmund on the other hand, have had just one hiccup in 2020, a four to three defeat at Bayer Leverkusen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transfermarkt.co.uk\/lucien-favre\/profil\/trainer\/535\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lucien Favre<\/a>\u2019s side have scored an astounding 28 goals in the eight Bundesliga fixtures played this <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R\u00fcckrunde<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This weekend, Dortmund claimed all three points in Gladbach, leapfrogging Leipzig to claim second place. The Black and Yellows now trail Bayern by four points.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>The Next Three Bundesliga Match Days Could Determine the Title<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next three league matchdays could very well determine if the Bundesliga title race remains competitive. Bayern take on Union Berlin at the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stadion An der Alten F\u00f6rsterei<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This is a tricky fixture for the record champions as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonfootball.com\/2020\/01\/26\/union-berlins-home-form-crucial-for-bundesliga-status\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Union<\/a> look to shore up Bundesliga football for the coming campaign, while the atmosphere will be intense on Bayern\u2019s first visit to the unique stadium. The next week, Eintracht Frankfurt visit the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allianz Arena<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This is then followed up by <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Der Klassiker<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at Dortmund\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Signal-Iduna Park<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If Bayern win all three, the title race, barring something truly dramatic, will be all but over.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This coming weekend sees Dortmund take on Schalke at home in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Revierderby. <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The club then <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">visits high-flying Wolfsburg before the super match against Bayern. These are three difficult fixtures, and if Dortmund does not garner nine points, it would be hard to bet on them lifting the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Meisterschalle <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in May. Leipzig&#8217;s next three fixtures are against lower table opposition, but after their poor run of form this year, it is improbable that they can hinder Bayern\u2019s usual <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R\u00fcckrunde <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">domination and subsequent path to the title.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1206351746\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 65.99327% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/1206351746?et=tcAc_NhIRsRHIe7d9Y0pVQ&amp;tld=co.uk&amp;sig=8dsqVrO91fiTBrAUye_8Rv4MDtqgLUtbWtyavfVMjZU=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"392\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bundesliga title race began as a four-horse race between Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia M\u00f6nchengladbach, and Borussia Dortmund. For a moment, even FC Schalke 04 were in the discussion. Not even the most ardent of optimists, however, believed that this title drama could last into May. After the winter break, the top of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3276,"featured_media":545434,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1364,2],"tags":[361,53,52,271,51,578,4335,541,1014,1662,2675,620,4232],"class_list":["post-545369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bundesliga","category-bayern-munich","category-featured","tag-bayer-leverkusen","tag-bayern-munich","tag-borussia-dortmund","tag-borussia-monchengladbach","tag-bundesliga","tag-eintracht-frankfort","tag-hansi-flick","tag-hertha-berlin","tag-julian-nagelsmann","tag-lucien-favre","tag-nico-kovac","tag-rb-leipzig","tag-vfl-wolfsburg"],"modified_by":"Declan Wiseman, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}