The Daily Bee (April 1st, 2019): Hakimi out for the season!

• Matchday 27 recap

One week before one of the most anticipated Der Klassiker’s in recent memory Borussia Dortmund have climbed back to the top of the Bundesliga table thanks to late game heroics from Paco Alcacer and a surprising Bayern draw in Freiburg.

Dortmund now head to Munich with a small advantage, the Bavarians are under pressure to win the match, a loss would see them fall behind 5 points.

In the fight for the remaining two Champions League spots RB Leipzig have strengthened their position and are firmly in third place after a 5:0 victory over Hertha BSC Berlin. Gladbach meanwhile have dropped out of the top 4 with a loss to Fortuna Düsseldorf and Eintracht Frankfurt’s win against VfB Stuttgart. Frankfurt are on an impressive run in the Bundesliga and the Europa League that could lead them to the Champions League next season.

Furthermore Bremen, Leverkusen, Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg are all in a battle for the last remaining Europa League spot. Hoffenheim picked up a crucial three points against Bayer on Friday with a decisive 4:1 but for now Werder Bremen remain in 6th place thanks to a 3:1 over Mainz.

In the relegation battle Hannover seems to be one of the teams that will get relegated at the end of the season. Hannover played well against Schalke but still lost against a direct rival and stay at the bottom of the table.

Nürnberg finally showed up and got three points against Augsburg but it might be too little too late at this point for them to stay up.

Schalke and their new (and former) coach Huub Stevens can breathe a little more easily after a hard fought victory over Hannover that saw them go 6 points clear of Stuttgart and 16th place.

• A new member of the BVB family!

BVB are back in first place but there were more good news over the weekend, Marco Reus and his girlfriend Scarlett Gartmann have celebrated the birth of their first child on Saturday. The child and the mother are doing well and Reus already posted the first picture of his daughter.

• Isak scores and scores and scores...

Alexander Isak’s loan to Willem II Tilburg turned out to be the perfect fir for the young striker. The Swedish international scored all three goals in Willem II’s 3:2 win over Fortuna Sittard, all three of them were penalty kicks. Isak has now scored 8 goals in just 9 games and has helped Willem II in the race for a Europa League spot.

BVB are still looking for a centre forward but with Isak’s impressive performances it seems possible that the club won’t pursue a new striker but give Isak maybe another chance.

• Hakimi out for the season

BVB’s fullback problems have reached new heights, Achraf Hakimi will miss the rest of the season with a broken foot. The fullback suffered the injury in the second half of Dortmund’s 2:0 win over Wolfsburg.

Lucien Favre is running out of options at fullback. Piszczek is back in training but he will likely not be ready for the Bayern game, in addition Abdou Diallo had to get subbed out on Saturday as well and has muscular problems. This leaves Wolf and either Guerreiro or Schmelzer as the only possible options for Der Klassiker.