The race for the title in Germany hasn’t been as straightforward as most expected when the season began. Bayern are not as dominant as we’re used to – mostly because Xabi Alonso and his Bayer Leverkusen have been exceptionally well. But the title race isn’t the only thing happening – on the contrary. Let’s look all 18 teams under a magnifying glass.Bayer 04 Leverkusen: Historically hungry for goalsNot once in the season so far has the Werkself remained goalless. On the first twelve match days, Leverkusen consistently scored at least twice – no team in the upper house had ever achieved that.FC Bayern Munich: Own record setThe 3-0 win against Stuttgart on matchday 15 was the 64th home game in a row in which the record champions scored at least one goal. In doing so, the Bavarians equalled their own Bundesliga record. Bayern had previously achieved such a series of goals in their stadium from October 1970 to September 1974.VfB Stuttgart: The best third partyVfB has already collected 34 points with a 37-19 goal difference. Only once since the introduction of the three-point scoring system has a third-placed team had a better record after 16 matchdays: in 2005/06, Werder even got 35 points with 45:20 goals after 16 matchdays and ended up second.RB Leipzig: Strong against leadersLeipzig was the only team to meet a league leader three times this season, and their record was impressive: RB won 5-1 against Stuttgart on Matchday 2, 3-0 at Union on Matchday 3 and against Bayern on Matchday 6 Team a 2:2. RB thus extended a series under Marco Rose: Under the current coach, the Saxons have never lost against a first team (3 wins, 2 draws).##NAJAVA_MECA_7769410##Borussia Dortmund: Zero zero numbersDortmund’s last goalless draw was on matchday 9 of 2019/20 in a 0-0 draw with Schalke. Borussia have now been without a zero for 143 games – a new Bundesliga record. On the second matchday, with a 1-1 draw in Bochum, BVB overtook the previous record holder Schalke, who had managed 128 games from October 1971 to August 1975 without a clean sheet.Eintracht Frankfurt: Harmless after cornersSGE is the only team still waiting for a goal from a corner. Moreover, Since Ansgar Knauff’s goal in the 2-1 win in Augsburg on 5 November 2022, Eintracht has been unsuccessful from corners. After Knauff’s goal, the Hessians recorded 190 corners.TSG Hoffenheim: Historic away seriesFrom the 4th to the 10th matchday, the away team always won in TSG games: Hoffenheim lost its home games against Dortmund (1:3), Frankfurt (1:3) and Leverkusen (2-3), and in Cologne (3-1), at Union Berlin (2-0), in Bremen (3-2) and in Stuttgart (3-2), the team won each of its guest games. Never before in the Bundesliga has a team had such a series.SC Freiburg: The anti-Robin HoodFreiburg is something like the anti-Robin Hood of the league. They give to the big clubs, and they take from the small ones: against the teams that are currently in the top half of the table, Freiburg suffered six defeats with just one win and one draw. However, there were six wins and two draws against the teams that are currently in the bottom half of the table.Mapinduzi Cup: Rupia nets brace for Singida in JKU humbling1. FC Heidenheim: Schmidt is also internationally uniqueIn September, the time had come: Heidenheim’s Frank Schmidt replaced Volker Finke, who had sat on the bench in Freiburg from 1991 to 2007, as the coach with the longest tenure in German professional football. The FCH coach has been in office since 17 September 2007. No coach in the other top European leagues can currently top that.VfL Wolfsburg: Wind in Podolski’s footstepsJonas Wind was directly involved in 65 per cent of all Wolfsburg goals: he scored nine goals himself and set up four more for his teammates. Only one player had a higher rate at the end of the season: Lukas Podolski was directly involved in 67 per cent of all Cologne goals in 2011/12; he scored 18 times and provided nine assists, collecting two scorer points from a penalty.FC Augsburg: Thorup’s strange noveltyJess Thorup had a strange start to his term in Augsburg: FCA was always behind in his first four games, but the team still scored points each time (two wins and two draws). This makes Thorup the first coach in the history of the Bundesliga to take something countable from behind in his first four games.Borussia Monchengladbach: Weak against bottom teamsGladbach was the only team to meet a team from bottom of the table four times in the first half of the season – with manageable success: all four bottom teams were able to hand over the red lantern after the game: Darmstadt on the 4th matchday with a 3-3 draw, on the 7th matchday Mainz with a 2 draw: 2, on the 8th matchday Cologne with a 3-1 and on the 14th matchday Union also with a 3-1.Werder Bremen: Never exactlyIt wasn’t until matchday 16 in a 1-1 draw against Leipzig that Werder scored an odd number of goals. Previously, Bremen had scored either zero, two or four goals in 16 games in a row across the seasons – a unique series in Bundesliga history.VfL Bochum: Waited a long time againLike Mainz, Bochum only managed their first three points on matchday 10. Never before have VfL had to wait so long for their first win. The Bochum team thus beat their negative record from the previous season when they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 on matchday 9.Serhou Guirassy Bundesliga Stats: 2023/24:14 Games🏟️17⚽1🅰️2022/2322 Games🏟️11⚽0🅰️ pic.twitter.com/JDQI4XafhZ— Football Giants (@FutballGiants) December 22, 2023 Union Berlin: Passed through extremely quicklyAfter the second matchday, the Iron World still looked rosy: Union climbed to the top of the table with a 4-1 win in Darmstadt. This was followed by nine defeats and a fall to the bottom of the table. Only two teams were passed through faster, Düsseldorf 1985/86 and Gladbach 1998/99. Both teams were at the top on matchday 1. Fortuna then took over the Red Lantern after eight matchdays and Borussia after nine.FSV Mainz 05: Another penalty recordMainz still holds the record for the most penalties converted in a row. Another, albeit inglorious, penalty kick record was added on matchday 1: Ludovic Ajorque was the first player in Bundesliga history to miss two penalties in one game.1. FC Koln: Historically few goalscorersOnly four players scored for the Cologne club on the first 16 matchdays: Davie Selke (4 goals), Florian Kainz (3), Luca Waldschmidt (2) and Linton Maina (1). Never has a team had fewer goalscorers during this period; the last team to only have four was Hoffenheim in 2011/12. Pictured here is goalless Steffen Tigges.SV Darmstadt 98: A red afternoonDarmstadt was the only team to receive four red cards this season and set a Bundesliga record when they lost 8-0 on matchday 9: for the first time, two players were sent off with straight red cards for a team in the first half: Klaus Gjasula and Matej Maglica.
