The second half of the Bundesliga season gets underway with an English week.
The Bundesliga returned to action with an English week, chucking the league’s well-rested players right back in the deep end. Any players that enjoyed a particularly heavy festive period were probably workshopping their excuses for sitting this week out, but for the rest of the league a lot of football was played. The highlight of the bunch was a 3-3 slobberknocker between Werder Bremen and Heidenheim.
The game got off to a quick start after a deflected Marco Grüll shot ended up in the back of the Heidenheim net inside the first minute, and from that point on fans were treated to a back-and-forth game that saw a total of 26 shots and five more goals. Werder Bremen must have thought they’d claimed victory after Grüll scored his second of the night with ten minutes left in the game, but a Leo Scienza freekick secured a point for Heidenheim in the 95th minute of the game.
Here’s how the rest of Matchdays 16 & 17 played out.
Borussia Dortmund 2-3 Bayer Leverkusen
Heidenheim 2-0 Union Berlin
Freiburg 3-2 Holstein Kiel
Hoffenheim 0-1 Wolfsburg
Mainz 2-0 VfL Bochum
St. Pauli 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-1 Bayern Munich
RB Leipzig 4-2 Werder Bremen
Augsburg 0-1 VfB Stuttgart
Holstein Kiel 4-2 Borussia Dortmund
Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 Mainz
Eintracht Frankfurt 4-1 Freiburg
Wolfsburg 5-1 Borussia Mönchengladbach
VfL Bochum 1-0 St. Pauli
Bayern Munich 5-0 Hoffenheim
Union Berlin 0-2 Augsburg
VfB Stuttgart 2-1 RB Leipzig
Werder Bremen 3-3 Heidenheim
Frankfurt started 2025 in the same fashion they finished 2024, picking up wins against St. Pauli and Freiburg. While they just barely snuck by St. Pauli, Frankfurt gave Freiburg a real thumping, coming away with a 4-1 win that saw four different players getting on the scoresheet for Die Adler.
They are in third place on 33 points right now, and they have looked pretty good value for their place in the table. They are five points behind Leverkusen, so it looks unlikely that they will be able to mount a late push to be a part of the title race, but their fans will be feeling very optimistic about their chances of finishing in the top four.
However, Omar Marmoush, the 25-year-old forward who has led the way for Frankfurt this season, looks to be on his way to Manchester City in the January transfer window. Marmoush has contributed 15 goals and nine assists in just under 1,500 minutes (1.37 npG+A/90) in the Bundesliga this season, and he has been a huge part of Frankfurt’s success. While he’s not the only star in this team (Hugo Ekitike has also been tremendous), losing Marmoush will be a huge blow, and could be costly in a tight race for top four.
Do you think Frankfurt will survive in the top four without Omar Marmoush? Let us know in the comments.