Bundesliga matchday 21: Preview and Predictions

On this week’s preview show Manu returns to help Stefan take a look at every game of the Bundesliga matchday 21. Can Freiburg cause problems for Dortmund? Can Werder Bremen keep marching up the table? And who will win Saturday’s all-important Topspiel between Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich? All that and more answered on today’s show.

Every team every topic everywhere this is belied Hello and welcome to Gig impressing the Bundesliga podcast I’m Manu F he Stefan banovski and uh Stefan I’m doing great but how are you yeah I’m doing very well uh I’ve spent the week telling our listeners about why you aren’t on the show because

You’re in Hawaii and uh a bit of a a little of a um what’s the word to use um surprise for listeners that we are doing at least one show me in Scotland you and Hawaii this must be the only podcast in the history of humanity where one guest

Is in Scotland and one is in Hawaii well it it kind of is because I mean we’ve done it in the past I think when I was here 14 months ago we also recording oh well there we go episode for here that’s true but um it’s uh two of a kind I

Guess but yeah it’s been great and um yeah I I didn’t want to stay away from from this episode obviously and then of course I also have my my newsletter up as per usual so um mostly on holiday but not completely uh which is which is nice

It’s good it’s doing good um Stefan we have a really exciting match day coming up so enough about me and my me lying around in the Sun and going on warm weather training with my bike um I think it’s it’s it’s about time that we dive into this really exciting match day this

Is a match day I’m really looking forward to not looking forward to watching Bayern against Leverkusen at I think it’s 5:30 local time in the morning but oh well the tough choices that we make in life right so um let’s di into this exciting match day after this

Break the big the big game is finally here bat online is your number one source for playoff football Arts starts Trends and lines with everything from point spreads to hundreds of players performance props with dozens of Arts props and info on hundreds of sports events politics and entertainment you

Can access the world’s best waging information anytime from desktop or your mobile device head to bet online today to stay updated on all the action bet online the game starts here um yeah all right so this is actually as I said really exciting match there that it kicks off with a really

Good Friday game and um this is now the second week in a row that Dortmund play on a Friday um they had the very unexciting 00 draw last Last Friday Stefan that’s 90 minutes I wanted back for sure um they are hosting fror and this is my match of the week so I’m

Diving straight into it um I couldn’t believe the start when I saw it Dortmund and beaten in 35 home games played on a Friday 26 wins nine nine uh nine draws the last time that they have lost the home game was in January 2004 um against shal obviously um the

Big rivals so yeah um I don’t think that’s going to change but I also kind of don’t think Dortmund are going to win this match so I went for a two to draw here interesting um I think dman might bounce back in this game um I’ve got a

Few reasons for it uh number number one they’ve got this really weird um ability to get the best of fryberg um I’m not I’m not quite sure why I’m not quite sure how but every time fryberg come to the vest stadum um they start shaking in their boots and they fall apart uh

Dortmund have won the last four head-to-heads between these two teams and scored 17 goals um and on top of that fryberg have lost the last two games and as we said on the show for the last couple of weeks now they don’t exactly look at the top

Of their game so I’ve gone for uh a 2-1 win here for Dortmund not to say that it will be a tight match but I don’t know even though dman don’t look great I think this is the perfect game for them to kind of bounce back yeah no they they

Looked atrocious against Heidenheim uh just the void of ideas um oh okay fair enough Heidenheim a really tough opponent to play against we we’ve outlined her many times in the show before right but um there was just is something that makes me think and you’re right the record for Dortmund is

Is astonishing against frook but every run comes to an end um I don’t think their unbeaten run at on a Friday night comes to an end but I don’t think that it’s just something about this fbook side that makes me think that they’re going to get something from this match

Either way it should be an interesting one to tune into um this next one to Stefan on Berlin at home against wburg what do you think here so um I was really close to going for a win for un Berlin here um you know they’ve not done terribly poorly on the

Road at home they’ve won three the last games actually at home which you know as we know is a big thing for unone who have obviously had such a terrible start of the season um but wilburg have also been kind of okay in the road Recon

They’ve picked up two draws and a win and you know in general wilburg just seemed to have this really weird tenacity to just do the bare minimum basically um they’ve now got four draws on the bounce and there’s just something that makes me think un and Berlin in their current H

In you know current form just don’t really have enough about them to put this wilburg team to bed or to put them to I don’t know what Express the expression is really just to kind of put other Mysteries really guess what I’m looking for um so I’ve went for a one-1

Draw yeah I I almost went for a draw here but um interestingly enough even though on berin season has been pretty poor they have won their last three home games in a row if they win this one at home um that would actually equal their Club record which is actually kind of

Crazy thinking considering how ban started in the year and how miserable it was and and I it kind of shows to me that slowly but surely they’re clawing their way out of their out of the relegation and of course they lost to leig last weekend but you know as I put

In our substack chat I mean that’s a kind of result that we all expected you know a very good team that yes had a bad run of form beat a team that is maybe just a middle siiz a mid mid-table team in German Football so there isn’t really

That wasn’t really that surprising to me overall if that makes sense um I do think that on ber going to win this game it’s going to be a narrow win um but they’re going to win it and I went for a 2-1 home home win for on ban

Here so but we’ll see um all right up next Andra Frankford against bom um Frankford also in a really good home run form um little disappointing last weekend against K but um have a really good home run form um and I do think that’s going to

Continue here against B bu a good side don’t get me wrong I think that you know the the biggest strength though comes to when they play at home um and I think playing in Frankfurt is a really difficult task for the bom side so I went for a 3-1 frankurt win here

Stefan yeah um I think after last weekend you would think you would do kind of Wonder of what kind of Frankfurt site are going to show up against bulam this weekend um you know Frankfurt just kind of looked all over the place against cologne and really got played

Off the park to be honest as we talked about in the main show this week um but I do kind of suspect that that result probably kind of sobered them up if you will or um you know made them maybe kind of realize that they really have to kind

Of get their head down and make sure they don’t kind of see the season kind of spit out of control and I think up against of bulam side who’ve only won one game on the road this season and that was against dmad then and yeah I kind of agree with

You that Frankfurt should have enough to win this game so I’ve gone for a 2-1 win yeah frankfurt’s home it’s weird Frank show up very differently when they play on the road than um when than when they’re at home so you know I I do sense

That the home team will show up here and do what they usually do um up next gladbach against dad Stefan I suspect this is going to be a pretty straightforward answer from you yeah so gladbach straight forward same here that was exactly my result as well um two Hill for gladbach um we’re

In total Accord here makes sense you know this damad side um slowly but surely spiraling back to Bundesliga 2 um and glat you know they have the quality they should see this should see this game through and get the three points here all right up next vaa against

Heidenheim I had some difficulties um with this one and and then ultimately settled with a 1–1 draw um Heidenheim have been you know excellent um all season long um they get the results that they need um but you know we had a Brean too slowly but surely

Right um you know becoming a team that’s it’s getting better and better we had we we talked about them on the bonus show this week um covered their investor deal so um ultimately yeah I went for a one-1 draw here Stefan yeah I think um you know Breman have

Looked better in recent weeks um they’ve obviously you know picked up three wins on a row uh and even though Heidenheim have looked good recently uh they still really struggle on the road uh to be honest with you um you know draws against colog and hoffenheim in the last

A couple of weeks suggest there’s there’s still something about that plane on the road that um kind of limits them to an extent so I think it’s going be a really tight match uh but I’ve gone for a 2-1 win for Verde Breman um this one is a bit easier for

Me to predict actually I’ve gone for a 2-0 win for leig uh they kind of got back to form against unon at the weekend um they really needed to pick up some sort of result after the start to 2024 um and the there’s something that makes me

Think that alburg won’t be up too much of a problem they’ve only got one win in the last five games um so yeah I’ve going for a two- no win for leig yeah oxburg do have that ability to make it um difficult for better teams at

Home um I didn’t go quite for decises of a win for for liik I still think they’re going to win I went for two one win here um but you know it’s just something sometimes about um that that that ground that location alburg um you know my joke is always

That’s where title dreams go to die lever of course pass that hurtle Bayern pass the hurdle um I mean leig are obviously out of the title race but we’ve seen Dortmund there drop points many many times right so and it’s not always the easiest place to play for top

Teams but I do think that that lii go going to continue their positive trend here um and get a result and so I went for a 2-1 win uh Stefan the next game is the big one I think um most of Europe is going to tune into this most of the

World I I suspect will tune into this game um to see how Leverkusen will do against Mighty Bayern Munich if they can put um a wrench into Bayern Munich chasing lusen at the very top of the table that bcal game yesterday we were recording this on a Wednesday it’s

Tuesday right d car game against stutgart wow wow what a match so so good I think you know um account which stot players said it after oh was as as um UNF he said it was the two best teams in German football at the moment I I I have

A hard time disagreeing with him um and so I’m really curious I know I know you’re doing a big preview um with Mari she’s coming on right SCH bom who’s been on the on the show several times before so I’m really looking forward to listening to that so I’m going to give

You the floor here because this is your match of the week yeah well it will already be in the feed for our subscribers once the time by the time they listen to the show um yeah it’s a fascinating game we actually asked Marie for her prediction at the

End of that show and she was fantastic and we basically just went through uh we did a deep dive into Bayern really just because obviously Leverkusen have actually got a huge amount of um attention recently uh more so um well obviously because of how well they’re

Doing but also a kind of extra dump of Leverkusen content based on um the Jurgen Club news at Liverpool so we dived straight into Bayern almost specifically and yeah I kind of came away from it kind of thinking that this is such a tough one to call um Bayern have looked

Better in recent weeks uh Leverkusen have been really impressive in the way that they’ve kind of just still managed to kind of claw results but I think there’s definitely kind of been a drop off from the fact that you know they’re missing kosu Bona H palasio as well

These are guys that are definitely missing and you know as I said on that main show you know based on that performance in midweek against stook got a very good Star side so I really hope this doesn’t come across his um down playe their performance but it was once

Again again in which floran vers just kind of grabbed it by the Scruff of the neck and draged Leverkusen through it um and you do kind of wonder if he’s going to be able to do that against his Bayern side however um Bayern haven’t been outstanding they’ve had their issues and

They go into this game with actually a minor injury crisis to be perfectly honest with you um Kingsley colan’s out Serge gabri’s out Alonso Davies is expected to miss it comrad lmer is expected to miss it um Kim kimick and op maano are all

Dos um so you know we could see a Bayern backline of mazui Eric Dyer delict and G and Ral Guerrero um in front of pavlovich and gitka so it could be a very bare Bayern Ty team and if that’s the case then I actually suspect that Leverkusen might be able to kind of

Match them man for man um I think I think I still I still I still think Bayern um will be able to score goals they still got leroyan they still got Harry Kane they’ve both been outstanding I did my newsletter on how Harry Kane has actually changed his game since he

Moved to Bayern this week but that backline if that’s the backline we’re going to be looking at um I think lever are going to be able to break through it so I’ve out scored for 3-2 victory for liver kusen yeah that backline looks dire uh Stefan um excuse the pun but it’s um

I went back and forth here and I struggled giving Leverkusen all three points I I do think there’s going to be um goals in this match and I I do think that I do think that um Bayern are not going to win this game so I went for

A two two draw so similar result than yours um I I fully agree with you I think this is going to be up to individuals in the end of the day um I think that that backline that Bayern Munich backline and the injuries that are coming in right

Um if Leverkusen do not get a result here at win or a draw this is the time when you really need to beat Bayern Munich right um and that’s is going to be a huge test for them I think and this might this might sound a little bit

Premature but I think if leverkus win this game that might be the title race um because what would it be then five points right that’s that’s not a lot I agree a lot of people will like scream at me and say um that’s that’s not a lot

You can overcome that all that sort of stuff but that means Bayern Munich have to win two more games the rest of the way than Leverkusen right with this the squad that they have um and that is actually quite a big task because they still have to play in Dortmund right um

I think they still have have liic as well right um and that makes me kind of think is maybe a mountain too steep to climb um a draw of course it’s a complete different scenario um I think than you know but yeah it’s it’s going to be hugely fascinating in that

Regard I think um the other thing that’s kind of made me Edge towards leverkus winning this game is that I think in this kind of circumstance a livig or a Dortmund would settle for a draw and they would think themselves as long as we avoid defeat we’ve still got a chance

To win the title here I think what make ja lordo special is he just doesn’t think that way he just you could just imagine Leverkusen there’s just no way Leverkusen go into this game and try and see out a nil-nil draw um there’s just something about this team that they just

Simply don’t give up they simply don’t you know accept mediocrity and um I just think they’re going to give everything to try and win this match because as you said if they do um they might have one hand on that trophy already which is crazy it’s so early but like I just

Don’t think that Bayern Munich have in it the pace is so high this year right and they would have to set such a high Pace the end of the way with a squad that you said is so depleted already um yeah is it’s a huge huge huge huge game

In the fixture list and I kind of look at um I’m kind of talking myself into actually thinking that leverkus are going to win it I’m not going to change for prediction here but it’s just you just I just never underestimate Mighty Bayern but um you know just looking at

The game that they they had against um against against stutgart and the bukal and that that’s kind of I thought to myself okay if they go out in that pocal match against stutgart that would be one title gone and they didn’t know what happens with Leverkusen once you know

The titles kind of drop away the title opportunities and I thought to myself when Star was winning the match I was thinking okay if they don’t win that match that could actually have huge implications on the title race and because you know then the mentality sets

In and and then they turn it around and then T pops up for a 90minut winner and I’m like okay well that’s actually big you know the fact that they were able to go and and see off this really good stutgart side um I think is is a really

Really really really big um you know they really showed their intention there in this match um anyways really looking forward to it I’m going to try to catch it um going to see if I can steal my buddy’s ESPN Plus account for the for to watching the United States and um tune

Into this game so um yeah really excited for it and I actually just W out at at 7:30 on Saturday not at 5:30 so that makes things a lot better um anyways so Sunday that gets us to the Sunday games and that gets us to stutgart Stefan and I feel bad for stutgart

Because the game that we witnessed on Tuesday that should have been the Bal Final in my opinion um they’re now out of the out of the cup um but you know they showed they showed they showed why they’re such an exciting team to watch um I had a really easy time predicting

This match I think sh are going to roll over mines and Win It 3-1 yeah I’ve gone for a 2-0 win um is Unfortunately they went out but um there’s that old line in the movie H The Social Network when they have that boat race and they they they lose within an

Inch of the race and the father says to the two Winkle boss twins he says never apologize for losing a race like that and I’m sure that’s probably what Sebastian H is say to said his players after the Leverkusen gam so um you know they went Toe to Toe with what are the

Best team in Germany right now they almost won um so yeah I suspect they probably won’t have too much Pro too many problems uh beating mind so I’ve got for PR to the win yeah it’s pretty straightforward um the stutgart side is really good roodi fer was um at the

Leverkusen game and he said there will be many stutgart players at the Euro 20 24 Squad yeah it makes sense they’re really good um that brings us to the last game K showed some signs of life um and playing hoffenheim away are they going to keep showing signs of Life Stefan

I think they will actually I’ve gone for a two two draw here um as you said you know colog have looked better recent weeks we had Matt on the main show obviously talking about their win um but perhaps more importantly hoffenheim have just been absolutely pants at home this

Season uh they’ve won just two of their nine games they’ve drawn three of the last four which is perhaps more interesting uh but yeah they just seem incapable of seen out games and I think if cologne play as well as they did against Frankfurt then they should take

At least a point from this game I just saw this crazy stat about hofheim they have won six of their first nine Bundesliga matches but I have only won one match since against buum okay so I went for two1 half my win I’m kind of regretting

That now because I think maybe they will drop points here but I’m going to stick to it anyways um yeah I think that you know this might be the second three pointers for them but you know that that is if you’re hofheim and you’re looking at that Trend that would be kind of

Concerning I know you’re sitting in the top part of the table and all that kind of thing but you you got to start winning games um and you better start it here because I don’t think I think if you can’t beat curent then maybe the

Staff in in Sim um and in hofheim will have to ask some different questions here about what’s going on um with this team anyway Stefan that does that does it uh um the preview show from brought through you from Honolulu and uh Scotland which is a really odd mix a scotch Honolulu

Cocktail which is oh that’s pineapple Scotch cocktail I might have to have that today on the pool [Laughter] um um yeah so anyways this show is brought to you as always by bat online in association with get German Football news um we’re always really kind of bringing um and you

Know posting the this show on their site um check out their homepage it’s really good information they have their daily updates on the Bundesliga so yeah um can only highly recommend it and uh Stefan uh the main show thanks for covering me there you did the a second bonus show

Marie right previewing the the game on the on weekend Matt and I did a uh bonus show on the investor deals for uh stutgart and BL which are completely different but both very fascinating so um give that a listen if that’s the the kind of thing that interests you my

Newsletter uh will be with you as well um I’ll be honest with you I’m going to write it today on the pool but I have no idea yet what about I have a few ideas but uh by the time you listen to this you will have found out what I came up

With and um yeah that covers Us for this week we’ll be back next week with our regular broadcasting um and until then of in Thank you for listening to believe you can show support to your host by subscribing to the show and giving us a five-star rating on your preferred platform check us out at believe.com and search for b e a v on YouTube