Boys to men defined the tone in the penultimate round during midweek action as a fine line emerged in the race for the 2019/20 Bundelisga title before the unofficial winter champion is decided this weekend at the halfway point as the battle to topple Bayern Munich gathers steam.
All the top five teams emerged unscathed with notably third placed Bayern squashed in-between their contenders and separated by a marginal three -point gap before the three-week Christmas break .
RB Leipzig lead on 34 points, tied with second placed Borussia Monchengladbach, Bayern and number four side Borussia Dortmund are even on 30 points, one more than their old foe Schalke at number five.
Round 16 also got off to mouthwatering start on Tuesday evening when Dortmund hosted ambitious leaders Leipzig in a six goal-thriller that saw all the goals scored by the Bundesliga’s brightest young talents.
Dortmund sent upstarts Leipzig to the ropes when they led 2-0 into the break with goals from the two Julian’s, Weigl and Brandt, aged 24 and 23 respectively.
But Timo Werner struck in the 47th and 53rd minutes for Leipzig to see the 23-year-old German striker stay second with 18 goals this season.
Then teenager sensation Jadon Sancho hit back four minutes later before 23-year old Czech Patrik Schick ensured Leipzig stayed top with a shared of the spoils in the 77th minute at Signal Iduna Park.
Leipzig extended their stay at the top from three days to a week on 34 points where they were joined by winter-champions favourites Monchengladbach who surrendered top spot to the ambitious side over the weekend.
Gladbach made a modest rebound with following their Bundesliga and Europa League defeats last week to beat bottom placed Paderborn 2-0 after banking on the youth of 26-year-old French man Allassane Plea and the experience from the penalty spot of 31- year-old Lars Stindl to ease any doubts about their ambitions this term.
But on Wednesday, 7Robert Lewandowski, 31 refused to let the gravity of youth pull him down when he sparked Bayern to a 3-1 away win Freiburg.
Lewandowski’s 19th goal of the season may have kept his rival for the golden book , Leipzig’s Werner ,at bay but his thunder on the night was stolen by another youngster when 18 –year-old Dutchman Joshua Zirkee scored on his competitive debut for Bayern in the 90th minute barely a minute after replacing Philippe Coutinho.
Provider, 24-year-old Serge Gnabry , turned scorer a minute later to ensure Bayern still commanded the authority in the contest to end their seven-year domination.
Vanquished Freiburg are sixth on 25 points, after two successive defeats as the title fight is slowly cropped to a manageable five-horse race heading into the last fixtures of 2019 before action resumes on January 17,2020.
Rounding off the top five race are Schalke who collected a modest 1-1 away draw at mid-table Wolfsburg.
Onus is now on Schalke this Saturday to give a strong face to the projected top five race when they host fading Freiburg.
NEXT LIVE TV BUNDESLIGA MATCH
20/12/2019
World Football
21/12/2019
21h30:Hoffenheim-Borussia Dortmund
