German football blog: Will the Bundesliga come back with bang after the winter break?

Published 16:43 16/01/12

Welcome to our German football blog, courtesy of Ross Dunbar of brand new German football site bundesligafootball.co.uk .

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The German top flight is back this weekend after the winter break and in true Bundesliga-fashion we have a fantastic weekend of action, starting at Borussia Park on Friday Evening.

League leaders FC Bayern are in action against the stars of 2011 Borussia Monchengladbach who are just four points behind Jupp Heynckes’ men.

And Die Fohlen will be looking to hand FC Bayern their fifth defeat of the campaign and narrow the gap down to just one point.

Gladbach have enjoyed a quite stunning calendar year with Lucien Favre taking his side from bottom-spot in the Bundesliga to a nail-biting relegation play-off against VfL Bochum and then on to the brink of qualification for the Champions League.

A win on Friday for the home side will throw the title-race wide open at such a crucial stage in the campaign and it would keep Gladbach in one of the four Champions League places.

All eyes though, will be on their talisman Marco Reus who agreed a £14m move to Borussia Dortmund this month and will join the current German champions at the end of the season.

It remains to be seen what effect Reus’ transfer to Signal Iduna Park will have on the 22-year-old and his team-mates but what is for sure is that the Dortmund-born attacker will play a crucial part in their chase for Bundesliga glory.

Bayern Munich meanwhile, chasing their 23rd championship win, will relish the opportunity to end Gladbach’s title dream on Friday.

Heynckes, 66, has many close connections with Borussia having been born in Monchengladbach and making over 350 appearances for Die Fohlen, as well as managing the club on two occasions.

Heynckes is without his star Frenchman Franck Ribery and the head coach has already given strong hints about what his starting team could be.

Ribery was sent off on the last weekend of the Bundesliga season and will need to sit this one out with Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Arjen Robben expected to support Mario Gomez in attack.

With Kroos moving into an attacking position, FC Bayern’s Ukrainian midfielder Anatoly Tymoshchuk will partner Bastian Schweinsteiger in the middle of the park.

In the other games across the weekend, Hamburg are aiming to continue their excellent form under Thorsten Fink and put a dent in the title ambitions of champions Borussia Dortmund who travel to the Volkspark on Sunday.

HSV have been handed a major blow with the injury to Gokhan Tore and rumours linking FC Basel’s talented winger Granit Xhaka seem to be dying out with the youngster strongly linked with a move to Galatasaray.

Another team looking to chase FC Bayern all the way in the title race is Schalke who are at home against VfB Stuttgart on Saturday.

And one of the most mouth-watering ties is the hugely important clash at the bottom of the Bundesliga with FC Augsburg travelling to mangerless Freiburg.

Freiburg sacked their head coach Marcus Sorg before the start of the January transfer window with the club languishing at the foot of the table on just 13 points.

Augsburg ended the season on decent form and they will be looking to extend the gap between the two clubs to five points with a win at the Badenova-Stadion.

In other matches in Germany this weekend, Hannover travel to Hoffenheim in a mid-table clash; under-pressure Wolfsburg boss Felix Magath welcoms FC Koln at the Volkswagen Arena; Michael Skibbe begins his managerial era at Hertha in Nurnberg; Leverkusen host Mainz and Werder Bremen take on Kaiserslautern.

For those interested in lower league German Football, the second division does not resume until the first week in February.

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Read more from Ross at the new site bundesligafootball.co.uk or follow @rossdunbar93 on Twitter

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