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Football: Five things we learned from the Bundesliga

By Allsports.com.gh
Football News Football: Five things we learned from the Bundesliga
OCT 24, 2016 LISTEN

Bayern Munich stay two points clear, Dortmund are winless in their last three league games and Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt is banished again.

Here are five things we learned from the eighth round of matches in the Bundesliga:

Tuchel fumes, Dortmund stumble
Just eight games into the season and injury-hit Borussia Dortmund already lag behind in the race to keep up with defending champions Bayern.

Borussia Dortmund are six points adrift of the leaders and sixth after Saturday's 3-3 draw at Ingolstadt, who punished Borussia for sloppy defending at set pieces.

Ingolstadt were 2-0 up at the break when Israeli international Almog Cohen slipped his marker at a free-kick, then Dario Lezcano headed home having out-leaped Dortmund centre-back Marc Barta.

"I want to completely rid ourselves of the fact that during the first half we were definitely not ready to play in the Bundesliga in any area of our game," fumed Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel.

"It was clear we'd be punished and it was good that we were punished."

Volland's fast red
Bayer Leverkusen's Kevin Volland earned the league's fastest red card of the season with just six minutes gone for bringing down Kerem Demirbay, who was through on goal, in their 3-0 defeat to Hoffenheim.

Having held Tottenham Hotspur to a goalless draw on Tuesday in the Champions League, Leverkusen were dealt a large dose of Bundesliga reality as the victory lifted unbeaten Hoffenheim to fourth in the table.

But Volland's fast red came nowhere near the quickest dismissals in Bundesliga history.

The fastest sending-off in Germany's top flight goes to Cologne's captain Youssef Mohamad, who was red-carded just 87 seconds after kick-off in the 2010/2011 season.

Marcel Titsch-Rivero holds the Bundesliga's all-time record dismissal -- just 43 seconds after coming on for Eintracht Frankfurt in a game in 2011 in Bundesliga 2.

Repeat-offender Schmidt
Bayer Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt can expect a lengthy ban from the German FA (DFB) after appearing to hurl abuse at opposite number Julian Nagelsmann during their defeat to Hoffenheim.

"That was nothing, what sort of a nutter are you? Just shut your gob!" Schmidt was heard to shout in Nagelsmann's direction around the time Hoffenheim went 2-0 up.

In February, Schmidt was banned for three games, with a further two in the event of a repeat offence, after refusing a referee's order to leave the sidelines during a 1-0 defeat to Borussia Dortmund, which caused the game to be delayed.

The 49-year-old apologised to Nagelsmann, 29, the youngest coach in the Bundesliga's history, after the incident but his latest outburst is almost certain to land him in hot water with the DFB.

Gomez finally scores
Wolfsburg signed Mario Gomez from Fiorentina before the start of the season and the Germany forward finally scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season on Saturday.

His well-taken header from a corner was Wolfsburg's 1000th goal in Germany's top flight, but their 3-1 defeat to Darmstadt leaves them seven games without a win and in the relegation places.

After Dieter Hecking was sacked last week, Valerien Ismael has been brought in to stop the rot, but this was another woeful display from Wolfsburg.

Who can stop Bayern?

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Bayern Munich's defender Mats Hummels (R) and Moenchengladbach's striker Lars Stindl fight for the ball on October 22, 2016 (AFP)

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