RB Leipzig wasted a great opportunity to consolidate its third place by conceding a draw on the pitch at Werder Bremen (1-1), Tuesday evening at the opening of the 16th day of the German championship. Marco Rose’s men have 33 points as they go on winter break for more than three weeks, two less than Bayern Munich and six points behind Bayer Leverkusen (the ranking here). Xabi Alonso’s “Werkself” hosts Bochum on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.), while at the same time, the Munich team travel to Wolsfburg. Manuel Neuer’s teammates, however, have a match in hand to play on January 24 against Union Berlin.
With this draw, which comes after three consecutive victories in the Bundesliga, RB Leipzig finds itself under threat from Stuttgart (31 points), which can regain its place on the podium in the event of a victory on Wednesday (8:30 p.m.) against Augsburg. At the Weserstadion in Bremen, Leipzig twice hit the posts of Bremen goalkeeper Michael Zetterer, in the first minute by Castello Lukeba, then by Amadou Haidara in the 41st minute. Loïs Openda opened the scoring just after half-time, getting the better of Christian Gross and beating Zetterer at the third attempt. The Belgian striker scored his 11th goal in the Bundesliga. But Ole Werner’s men came back into the game, and Justin Njinmah equalized for Werder at the start of the last quarter of an hour (75th), to take the point of the draw.
In the evening, Borussia Dortmund, imperial in the Champions League with first place in its group ahead of Paris-SG, AC Milan and Newcastle, continued its poor run in the championship by conceding a draw against Mainz (1-1 ) after leading the score. Out of 24 possible points, BVB has only taken seven points over the last eight days of the Bundesliga, and sees a worrying gap widening in 4th place, the last qualifier for the next Champions League. With 27 points, Edin Terzic’s men are six points behind Leipzig and four behind Stuttgart before the Swabian club’s match on Wednesday in Bavaria. The gap seems abysmal on the leader, Bayer Leverkusen before the winter break, with at least 12 points.
Dortmund logically opened the scoring with a perfect free kick from Julian Brandt at the half-hour mark. Dominant (two shots on the Mainz uprights), they were caught just before the break on a header from Sepp van den Berg , who got the better of Niclas Füllkrug and Emre Can. Dortmund found Mainz in their Westfalenstadion, which had deprived them of the coronation on the last day of the Bundesliga last season, with a draw while Borussia needed a victory to bring down Bayern.
