This week fixture

Saturday

SV Werder Bremen 4:1  VfL Wolfsburg     
FSV Mainz 05 0:0 Hamburger SV     
FC Nuremberg 0:2 1899 Hoffenheim     
FC Köln 4:0 SC Freiburg     
FC Augsburg 1:0 M'gladbach       
Hannover 96 0:0 Bayer 04 Leverkusen

Sunday
   
Borussia Dortmund : 1. FC Kaiserslautern     
VfB Stuttgart : FC Bayern Munich

Bremen vs Wolfsburg should be good

Mönchengladbach - Borussia Mönchengladbach got themselves off to a perfect start in 2012 with as they executed their gameplan to perfection to claim a fully deserved victory over league leaders FC Bayern Munich that sees them move within a point of top spot in the Bundesliga.


Bastian Schweinsteiger's long-awaited comeback and Marco Reus's home crowd reception played second fiddle to a phenomenal performance from Lucien Favre's charges. Reus opened the scoring early on after a glaring error by Manuel Neuer before Patrick Herrmann stole the limelight with two goals of his own to put the hosts comfortably ahead. Schweinsteiger did grab a consolation goal for Bayern late on, but in the end an out of sorts Bayern were made to pay by a ruthless Gladbach.

Manuel mishap gifts Gladbach the lead

Just like Phillip Lahm had requested FC Bayern set out their stall early on, controlling possession, while the hosts were left to pick out their opportunities in transition. There were a few rusty passes in the opening exchanges as the sides shook off the winter break cobwebs and one such pass brought about the opening goal just after the ten minute mark.

Holger Badstuber played the ball to Neuer who took a touch to go wide under pressure from Mike Hanke before scuffing his clearance straight to Reus. Gladbach's top goal scorer showed great composure to react to the opportunity before volleying the ball into the empty net from 35 yards with Bayern's keeper in no man's land. Bayern sought an immediate response as Mario Gomez ghosted in between Gladbach's centre-backs to meet Arjen Robben's cross, but could only force a good save out of Marc-Andre ter Stegen with his headed effort.

Bayern out of sorts

The visitors were struggling to get in behind Borussia's packed out backline who were making life as difficult as possible for the record title holders. There were a few moments of desperate defending from Lucien Favre's side, but they were doing well to prevent Bayern from creating clear cut chances despite the end-to-end nature of the game. Anatoliy Tymoshchuk and Bastian Schweinsteiger both drew routine saves out of ter Stegen from range, but it was the hosts who struck again just before half-time.

Arjen Robben gave the ball away on the wing before watching on as the Foals promptly netted their second of the evening. Hanke released Herrmann in behind who dropped a shoulder before placing an effort beyond the onrushing Neuer and into the far corner. Hanke fizzed an shot just wide of goal, but the home side will have been the happier of the two teams going in at the break having limited the league leaders throughout the first half.

Defences on top

Gladbach continued to seek out their chances on the break and had Reus found a more accurate pass to play in the wide open Juan Arango the hosts may have been celebrating an early third. Instead his cross-field ball rolled harmlessly to Neuer, but it was a early warning sign for Bayern that Borussia weren't content with a two-goal lead.

While both teams maintained a similar pace in the second half goal scoring opportunities were few and far between as the league's two meanest defences came out on top in the early stages of the second half. Bayern were putting together some dangerous moves, but were often lacking the final pass. Roel Brouwers was forced into making a well timed last-ditch block on a Lahm volley inside the box, but Gladbach were still looking to add to the score line and with 20 minutes remaining the Foals were able to enjoy the security of a third goal.

Comeback kid rains in on the parade

A clinical counter saw Reus hold up the ball before timing his pass to perfection to play in Herrmann who had the presence of mind to take the ball around Neuer before sliding the ball across the line for his second of the match. Bayern were getting more and more frustrated with every passing minute having struggled to breakdown their opponents though they did pull a goal back soon after courtesy of some uncharacteristically sloppy defending by Gladbach.

Robben's corner wasn't dealt with as the players played pinball inside the box and though Badstuber couldn't get his shot off the comeback kid himself Schweinsteiger finally got FC Bayern on the score sheet as he leathered the ball into the roof of the net from six yards out. Jupp Heynckes' men pumped the ball into the box during the later stages of the match as Mario Gomez and Thomas Müller went close to finding a second, but in the end Gladbach's resolute defending and never say die attitude handed them a deserved win over the record title holders.

Attendance:
On average, 45,116 fans have attended each top flight game this term - the highest ever amount in the Bundesliga's history.


Streaks:

Bremen went without a win in their last nine games this season (three draws, six defeats) - the second longest barren spell in their history after a twelve-match streak without victory in 1996.


Goals:

The final round of games produced the most goals of any Matchday this season, with 35 flying in.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar finished the campaign as Bundesliga top scorer with 29 goals, making the Dutchman the first ever foreign player to find the net so frequently in a single season.

Huntelaar also equalled Klaus Fischer's Schalke goalscoring record from the 1975/76 season.

Bayern Munich chairman of the board Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was the last player to score 29 goals in a season, back in 1980/81.

Claudio Pizarro scored his 29th Bundesliga brace - no other current player has achieved as many and only eleven players have ever scored more.

Robert Lewandowski enjoyed his most successful ever season, netting 22 times.

Stefan Kießling scored his second Bundesliga hat-trick, having only ever previously done so in a 4-0 win over VfB Stuttgart in November 2009.

Kießling has now netted 73 times for Leverkusen, leaving the striker second only to Ulf Kirsten in the club's all-time scorer's chart.

Köln conceded 75 goals this season - the highest in the Bundesliga and the Billy Goats' worst ever record.


Anniversaries:

Hertha's Levan Kobiashvili played his 336th Bundesliga match, overtaking Ze Roberto as the foreign player with the most top-flight appearances.

Freiburg suffered their 200th Bundesliga defeat, bringing an end to a run of ten games unbeaten.

Mirko Slomka celebrated his 36th Bundesliga victory with Hannover to overhaul Dieter Hecking (35 wins) as the 96ers coach with most triumphs.

Marco Reus' second strike against Mainz was Gladbach's 1000th away goal in the Bundesliga.

Bruno Labbadia recorded his 50th victory (24 with Stuttgart, twelve with Hamburg and 14 with Leverkusen) as a Bundesliga coach following VfB's win over Wolfsburg.


Miscellaneous:

Only the Bayern Munich team of the 1972/73 season had previously won 25 matches in a single campaign before BVB repeated the feat this time around.

The champions boast both the best home and away records in the league this term.

Dortmund set a club record by keeping a 15th clean sheet this season.

Bremen only picked up 13 points from 17 games in the second half of the season - their worst ever post-Christmas points haul.

Hoffenheim finished in eleventh place for the third consecutive season.

Hamburg collected just 36 points this term - their worst ever total in 49 Bundesliga campaigns.

Hannover were the only team to finish the season unbeaten at home. Their form in front of their own fans secured them a Europa League qualification place, as they earned just eleven points on the road all term.

Hamburg ended up in 15th place - their lowest ever final league position.

It was also a worst ever Bundesliga season for Kaiserslautern, who picked up just seven points after the winter break to end up with 23.

Köln competed in the Bundesliga for the first 35 years of its existence but have now been relegated five times in the last 14 years.

The Billy Goats failed to win any of their last nine games, slumping to their worst ever second season half.

Gladbach won 17 games this season, their highest number of victories in a single campaign since 1994/95, when they recorded the same amount.

Stuttgart collected 31 points in the second half of the season (nine wins, four draws and four defeats) - a return bettered only by Dortmund and Bayern.


The table:

No team had ever broken the 80-point barrier in a season prior to Dortmund managing it this year.

Bayern finished as runners-up for the tenth time, although their total of 73 points would have been enough to win the title in six of the last twelve seasons.

Schalke will particpate in the Champions League for the fifth time next season after finishing third - eleven places higher than their position last term.

Bremen missed out on European competition for the second successive season, leading to the departures of key players such as Marko Marin, Markus Rosenberg and Tim Wiese.

Freiburg finished the first half of the season at the bottom of the pile, but were not even in the lower third at the end of the campaign.

Hertha will play in the relegation play-offs for the first time in the club's history.

Köln had not been in the automatic relegation places since Matchday 3, but ended up finishing second-bottom.

Kaiserslautern were relegated for the third time in their history, but it was the first time they went down as the bottom club.