The Daily Bee (February 11th, 2019): Matchday 21 recap and Akanji back in training

• Matchday 21 recap

Matchday 21 turned out to be a rather disappointing one for Dortmund. The lead dropped to 5 points because of BVB’s late collapse against Hoffenheim which turned a 3-0 lead into a 3:3 and a Bayern Munich 3:1 win against Schalke.

Borussia Mönchengladbach surprisingly lost 0:3 against Hertha and are now most likely out of the title race. The team will now surely look to secure a top 4 spot and qualify for the Champions League next season.

The duel between RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt yielded no winner, the 0:0 draw means Frankfurt was not able to cut into Leipzig’s 5 point lead. Meanwhile Bayer Leverkusen thrashed Mainz 5:1 and are now in a Europa League spot after a disastrous first half of the season.

At the bottom of the table both Hannover (2:0 vs Nürnberg) and Fortuna Düsseldorf (3:0 vs Stuttgart) were able to pick up 3 crucial points each. Düsseldorf, a team that most people thought was a surefire relegation candidate are now looking like they can stay in the Bundesliga for one more year.

• DFB Cup quarterfinal draw

Borussia Dortmund are out of the DFB Cup but 8 teams still have the chance to win the competition and it looks like the favorites Bayern Munich have a clear path to the final. The Bavarians avoided the Bundesliga teams and got a home game against Heidenheim.

Paderborn and HSV will battle it out in a duel of two 2.Bundesliga teams, Augsburg will take on Leipzig and the most interesting match will probably be Schalke hosting Werder Bremen.

• Akanji and Zagadou back in training

BVB had some problems on defense recently and it showed during the collapse against Hoffenheim but it seems like reinforcements are on the way. Manuel Akanji was back in training on Sunday which is a good sign for Dortmund, although it will still take a bit until he’s ready to play again.

It was not the only good news for Dortmund, newly acquired centerback Leonardo Balerdi was also back in team training and Dan-Axel Zagadou played 60 minutes with BVBII on Saturday in a friendly against Bonn.

Sadly it doesn’t look as good for Marco Reus, BVB’s captain will likely not be ready to play against Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League on Wednesday.