The Bundesliga contenders will have one goal in mind this week- keeping up with the pace-setting Bavarians.
It is often said that a ‘wounded’ Bayern is a different beast to a ‘complacent’ Bayern. We will be able to see both sides of Bayern this week perhaps this week after their recent complacency in Europe. They were embarrassed by BATE Borisov in the Champions League and is the only German side to have lost a Champions League match so far. Their pride has been hurt and Hoffenheim is the team that has to try to tame them now.

Hoffenheim’s Boris Vukcevic continues to battle for his life in the hospital. The mood is admittedly depressing around the club. Last week, they played for the sake of the former German U-21 international. This week they will be understandably mentally unprepared for facing the rampant Bayern.

Bayern’s Bavarian neighbours kicks off the weekend on Friday against Bremen. Bremen played a wonderful match against Bayern and was unlucky to have come away with nothing. If they continue to play for 80 rather than 90 minutes, they might be in trouble. However, with the talent at their disposal, they should easily dispose of an Augsburg side currently stuck in the relegation zone.

Augsburg recently played Wolfsburg in a dull 0-0 draw. Felix Magath’s side followed up that draw with further poor results. Magath returns to one of his former clubs, Schalke. Schalke is coming into the match following a second draw which perhaps felt like a 5-0 defeat. They were leading against Montpellier and had the French side under the gun. The French side also lost a man.

The missed chances came back to haunt Schalke as Souleymane Camara equalized in the 90th minute. Horst Heldt was furious after the draw against Düsseldorf last week and will expect a reaction against Wolfsburg. Nothing more than a win will suffice this time. Düsseldorf celebrated the 2-2 draw like a win and will now travel to Mainz, the side which beat Wolfsburg 0-2 last week.

Wolfsburg’s sole win of the campaign came on the opening day against Stuttgart. Stuttgart is coming into their match on the back of a much needed win (0-2 against Nürnberg) but will be seriously tested by Bayer Leverkusen. Leverkusen’s Sidney Sam struck twice last week to consign Greuther Fürth to yet another defeat.

Fürth will take on high-flying HSV. HSV recorded their second win in three games against a very good Hannover side. They held on this time to a single goal lead and didn’t give it away as they had done previously against Gladbach.

Gladbach is coming into their match on the back of a 5-0 drubbing were they aided their opponent’s cause several times. It doesn’t get any easier for them as their next opponent is the only side which currently is in touching distance of Bayern in the table, Frankfurt.

Frankfurt recorded a 3-3 draw against the champions last Tuesday. The champions Dortmund, coming off a brilliant but unrewarded performance against Manchester City, plays Hannover 96 in arguably the weekend’s biggest match. The match was a close affair last time even though Dortmund did win 3-1.

Dortmund’s recent results in the league with the exception of last week haven’t been convincing ones. They drew against Nürnberg on match-day 2. Nürnberg last week lost partly because of a sorry performance from Marcos Antonio who was withdrawn prior to the 20th minute against Stuttgart after having been at fault for a Stuttgart goal and almost giving away a second. They play Freiburg on Saturday.

Bayern will be looking to equal a record they themselves set- seven wins at the start of a season. Mainz equaled the record in 2010. However, following the loss to BATE, how will they respond?

Tune in this week to find out!