Chris Richards had a tough outing as Hoffenheim was routed by Bayern Munich, while Lennart Maloney made his debut for Borussia Dortmund in their win over Arminia Bielefeld.
Bayern Munich 4-0 Hoffeinhem
Chris Richards had a chance to impress his parent club, but Hoffenheim was no match for the reigning Bundesliga champions as they came away with a convincing shutout win at the Allianz Arena.
It was a rather quiet outing for Richards despite completing 84 percent of his passes and winning two aerial battles in his 90-minute shift.
After a big win last weekend, Hoffenheim should have had a bit of confidence coming into this game in hopes of at least taking away a point, but Bayern proved on the day once again that it is just a one-team race in the league.
The hosts were on the attack from the start and thought they had scored the opener just six minutes into the contest when Serge Gnarby put away a strike following Florian Grillitsch clumsily losing the ball in his team’s end. However, the referee disallowed it as it was just the Grillitsch was fouled by Jamal Musiala.
Ten minutes later though Bayern was celebrating when some great team passing in the final third saw Gnarby put away the goal.
Robert Lewandowski doubled the team’s lead 15 minutes later when a long-range pass from the back found Thomas Muller who then outmuscled Richards to get his foot on the ball to pass it t the Polish international to score.
The visitors tried their best to get back into the game in the second half, but Bayern turned to their bench to put the game away once and for all.
Eric Choupo-Moting scored in the 82nd minute when a poor clearance from Hoffenheim saw the ball bounce into the path of the Cameroon international and he did not miss his strike from point-blank range.
Kingsley Coman rounded out the scoring in the 87th minute when Dayot Upamecano’s long through-ball found the Frenchman.
The loss leaves Hoffenheim in 11th place with 11 points.
Arminia Bielefeld 1-3 Borussia Dortmund
Missing the likes of Giovanni Reyna and Erling Haaland was no problem for Borussia Dortmund as they claimed all three points in their win over Arminia Bielefeld at the Schuco Arena.
This game was an opportune moment for Lennart Maloney as he played his maiden game for the first team, completing 83 percent of his passes.
BVB got their first chance to take the lead on the half-hour mark when the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty after Jude Bellingham was brought down in the area. Emre Can would step up to put away the spot-kick.
The first goal opened things up for the visitors and they went on the hunt for more.
They doubled their lead in the 45th minute when Mats Hummels volleyed the ball home from the edge of the area after a poor attempted clearance from Bielefeld.
The BVB attack continued in the second half and Bellingham got his name on the scoresheet in the 72nd minute with a scintillating display of skill to dribble the ball into the area before getting the ball over the goal line.
Bielefeld scored their consolation goal from the spot, but the game was done and dusted a long time ago.
The win moves BVB up to second in the standings with 21 points.
Notes
In other Bundesliga action, John Brooks played 88 minutes as Wolfsburg suffered their fourth consecutive loss with a 2-0 defeat to Freiburg.
Joe Scally went the distance for Borussia Monchengladbach in their 1-0 loss to Hertha Berlin.
Tyler Adams played the last 26 minutes for victorious RB Leipzig while Timothy Tillman played 18 minutes and Julian Green saw no action for Greuther Furth in the game that ended 4-1.
In the 2. Bundesliga, Ryan Malone was on the bench for Hansa Rostock as they could no challenge for St. Pauli in their 4-0 loss.
Justin Butler remained on the bench for Ingolstadt as they were pipped by Erzgebirge Aue in a 1-0 defeat.
Down in the 3. Liga, Terrence Boyd played 90 minutes for Hallescher while Andrew Wooten came on in the 81st minute for Osnabruck as both teams shared the points following a 0-0 draw.
Kevin Lankford scored a goal in his 70 minutes of work for Wehen Wiesbaden in their 4-3 loss to Meppen.
Johan Gomez played 63 minutes for Zwickau in their 1-1 draw with Waldhof Mannheim.
Mael Corboz played the first 45 minutes for Verl while Maximilian Dietz saw no action for Freiburg II as the latter came away with the 3-2 win.
Lennart Maloney was on double duty as he played 57 minutes for Borussia Dortmund II in their 1-0 loss to Viktoria Cologne.
Bryang Kayo played the final 10 minutes Viktoria Berlin as an early goal say them fall to Madgeburg in a 1-0 defeat.
