Germany

A crucial game beckons in the 2. Bundesliga's race for promotion as second-place Hamburg takes on third-place Stuttgart on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. EST. 

Dieter Hecking's Hamburg holds a one-point lead over New Jersey native Pellegrino Matarazzo's Stuttgart in the second and final automatic-promotion spot. Neither side has been in great form of late; stretching back to before the pandemic-enforced shutdown, Hamburg has just one win in six games while Stuttgart is on a winless run of four games. 

Fortuna Dusseldorf boosted their hopes of avoiding relegation from the Bundesliga as goals from Rouwen Hennings and Kenan Karaman helped them come from behind to beat Schalke 04 2-1 at home in a scrappy contest on Wednesday. 

The result left Fortuna 16th, the relegation playoff spot, on 27 points from 28 games, one behind Mainz who stayed in the safety zone with a 1-1 draw at Union Berlin. 

Schalke, who extended their winless league run to 10 matches, stayed ninth on 37 points. 

To maintain any chance of catching Bayern Munich and winning the Bundesliga title, third-place Leipzig needed to defeat 11th-place Hertha Berlin on Wednesday at Red Bull Arena. 

Things started out poorly with Hertha’s Marko Grujić, on loan from Liverpool, opening the scoring in the ninth minute. However, Leipzig responded in the first half through Lukas Klostermann before the home side had Marcel Halstenberg sent off for a second yellow card in the 63rd minute.

In midweek action in the 2.Bundesliga, VfL Osnabrück defeated Greuther Furth to take its point tally to 33 for the season. Osnabrück, competing in the 2.Bundesliga for the first time since 2010-11 after securing promotion last season, is now five points clear of the relegation playoff space with six games left to play. 

USMNT player Timmy Chandler helped Eintracht Frankfurt secure a 3-3 draw against Freiburg with an 82nd-minute goal on Tuesday. 

Frankfurt had gone down 3-1 before Japanese midfielder Daichi Kamada struck in the 79th minute to bring Die Adler back within one. Soon after, Chandler popped up at the back post to steer home a long cross from Filip Kostic. 

Bayern Munich put itself on the cusp of an eighth straight Bundesliga title after defeating Borussia Dortmund 1-0 at an empty Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday. Joshua Kimmich’s delicate chip just before halftime proved the difference as Bayern opened up a seven-point lead at the top with only six matches remaining.    

Mario Götze will bid farewell to his boyhood club for a second time at the end of this season, according to Borussia Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc. 

The battle for the prestigious European Golden Shoe award has effectively morphed into a four-horse race between Lazio’s Ciro Immobile and three Bundesliga representatives: Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner and Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland. The Bundesliga top scorers are largely pacing Europe right now, but who else is lighting up Germany’s top division?  

Bundesliga Top Scorers 2020 

(Updated 05/24/20)

He’s been heavily linked with Liverpool — although Chelsea, Manchester United and Inter Milan are reportedly in the fight — but RB Leipzig’s Timo Werner might’ve added a little more to his $70 million valuation following a hat-trick in Sunday’s 5-0 rout of Mainz. 

Schalke slumped to a shock 3-0 home loss to relegation-threatened Augsburg on Sunday, their fourth defeat in five games dropping them to eighth place in the Bundesliga. 

Augsburg's Eduard Löwen curled in a sensational free kick from 25 yards in the sixth minute and Nigerian winger Noah Sarenren Bazee slotted home in the 76th before Sergio Cordova added the third in stoppage time. 

6’: Eduard Löwen Free Kick