Another round of fixtures took place this midweek as the duel at the Bundesliga summit failed to become any clearer in its outcome. There remain two fixtures left to play and yet amazingly there are still five teams that could technically win the title, four of which cannot be separated by more than two points at this late stage of the season.
Bayern Munich continued to defy their recently departed manager Jurgen Klinsmann, by comfortably winning their third game in a row since his sacking at the end of April. This time around they eventually overwhelmed Bayer Lerverkusen 3-0 at home. Luca Toni scored his thirteenth league goal of the season soon after half-time, Frank Ribery then skilfully flicked the ball over Leverkusen's goalkeeper on the hour mark. Twenty minutes lingered when Lukas Podolski wrapped things up, with what is only his sixth Bundesliga strike thus far this term.
This result moved 'Munich onto 63 points and gave rise to hope that they would not only overhaul Wolfsburg at the top, but that they could overturn their goal difference deficit. Alas Wolfsburg were busy swatting aside their own opposition with an equal score line, and with a performance that was greatly needed to regain their focus.
Up until almost three weeks ago Wolfsburg had been unbelievably imperious in their pursuit of a first ever Bundesliga title. Since early February they had strung together ten consecutive league victories, that run came to an abrupt and shocking end when they were defeated on April 26th by second-bottom club Energie Cottbus 2-0. Wolfsburg regrouped and soundly saw off FC Hoffenheim 4-0 but were then completely undone by title rivals VfB Stuttgart last week (4-1).
Amongst all of this came the hardly well-timed announcement that their manager Felix Magath will be leaving at the end of the season. The former Bayern Munich manager has done wonders to turn Wolfsburg from a relatively obscure club to one that's on the verge of glory, but there is an understandable bitter taste of resentment at his departure.
It turns out that he has agreed to take the helm next term at Schalke 04, and Magath has freely admitted that his move is motivated by an inflated salary. At the same time he has tried gamely to justify his decision by suggesting that managers have a hard job to work long-term with clubs, however successful you are with them.
Even so Wolfsburg re-grabbed the bull by the horns and impressively defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-0. Dortmund had recently been regaining some credibility by going undefeated for six matches and climbing back up the table to sixth place, but here they were chasing shadows from quite early on.
Wolfsburg took the lead in the 14th minute through the Bosnian Edin Dzeko, it stayed that way until just after half-time when Grafite scored his 24th goal in 23 league games! After Dortmunds Boateng saw red, Dzeko grabbed his second goal with five minutes to go. Wolfsburg are therefore still top of the Bundesliga pile by virtue of two goals difference.
Another perspective champion Hertha Berlin kept up the pressure on the top two by also winning and moving on to 62 points (one behind). Hertha secured a 2-1 away victory against 1. FC Köln, a team that have now lost eight of their last ten league games and must be thankful that they are safely clear of any relegation threat. Cicero and Patrick Ebert were on target for Hertha whilst the team from Cologne mustered a last minute consolation through Adil Chihi.
VfB Stuttgart meanwhile persist with their late surge for the Bundesliga, they have now won seven of their last eight games in an unbeaten run. Their latest victims were Schalke 04 who are sinking firmly away from any European place for next season and demonstrating the scale of Magath's future task.
Cacau scored the first for Stuttgart after quarter of an hour, but Schalke equalised shortly before half-time via an Ivan Rakitic free-kick. With a little over half an hour left Stuttgart got the winning goal that keeps them realistically in the title race, Ciprian Marica being the hero. Stuttgart are now on 61 points, one behind Hertha Berlin and two further back from Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg.
As for the rest, Martin Jol's Hamburg got back to winning ways albeit too little too late. They have suffered an astonishing loss of form in the last month which has all but blown their previous hopes of a treble of trophies. All the more galling for them is the fact that their domestic rivals Werder Bremen have been the protagonists.
In their last seven fixtures Hamburg have played Werder four times, in the semi-finals of the DFB Pokal (German Cup) and the Uefa Cup, and then last week in the Bundesliga. All but the first leg of the Uefa Cup were lost, and even a victory in that was overturned by Werder at home!
On Wednesday night they defeated VfL Bochum 3-1, the result leaves them in fifth place on 58 points. They can mathematically still lift the Bundesliga, but with just two games left and four teams above them it seems highly unlikely now. Bochum meanwhile have drifted to fourth bottom and are now just a point above a relegation play-off, they desperately need to get out of the rut which has borne six defeats in their last seven.
As for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, the team that came from nowhere and stormed to the "Herbstmeister"*, they registered a second consecutive win after a massive disappointment of a second half of the season. Until last weekend they had not won since January 31st, but they then beat 1. FC Köln and on Wednesday they dispatched Arminia Bielefeld 2-0.
Hoffenheim have now moved back up to seventh and wherever they finish they can still be proud overall with the incredible impact they have had on the Bundesliga in their first ever year in the division. Bielefeld on the other hand appear doomed to drop out of the top division. They are only a point away from safety but the problem lies in that they will most likely need to win one of their last two fixtures. Seeing as they've only managed two victories since November though, the odds don't look good for them.
To predict who will win the Bundesliga then is still a bit of a lottery. I hope that Wolfsburg manage to obtain their fairytale, if they can win their final two games against mid-table opponents then they most probably will. Bayern are very close too but on the final day of the season they play Stuttgart in what could amount to a title-winning decider.
Finally there is Hertha Berlin who are the outsiders of the four but may well be worth a punt. They have left to play Shalke who are in poor form and then lastly Karlsruher SC, who will be expected to be relegated by then. Either way it promises to be the most compelling end to a Bundesliga in years...
*"Herbstmeister"- Autumn Champion, being the team that leads the Bundesliga during the winter break.