Five Lessons From The Bundesliga

Michy Batshuayi made a blistering start to life at Borussia Dortmund on Friday, firing the team back into the top four with two goals on his debut.

The Belgian wasn’t the only debutant to make an impact, as 20-year-old English forward Ademola Lookman grabbed a late winner in his first game for RB Leipzig.

The goal saw Leipzig move up to third in the Bundesliga, drawing level on points with second-place Bayer Leverkusen. Both Leverkusen and Leipzig are now 18 points behind leaders Bayern Munich, whose victory over Mainz on Saturday was overshadowed by speculation over coach Jupp Heynckes’ future.

Here are five things we learned from this weekend’s Bundesliga action.

– Batshuayi has big goals –
Who needs Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when you have Michy Batshuayi?

Just three days after joining Dortmund on a six-month loan deal, Batshuayi enjoyed an explosive debut, grabbing two goals and an assist to inspire his new team to a 3-2 victory in Cologne.

“The way the game went for him today was like a dream,” said coach Peter Stoeger of his new striker.

Batshuayi, meanwhile, is already dreaming of big goals for his six-month sojourn in Westphalia. “I want to get into the Champions League with Dortmund,” he said. “I want to win every single game.”

– Heynckes future in spotlight –
Bayern Munich’s dominance of the Bundesliga continued at the weekend, but there was more attention paid to Jupp Heynckes’ future.

The 72-year-old’s contract runs until June, and he has repeatedly refused to talk about extending it.

“I can imagine that readers, viewers and listeners are bored of this topic,” he said on Friday.

Since coming out of retirement to take over at Bayern in the autumn, Heynckes has led the team to 14 victories in 15 Bundesliga games, so it is little wonder that the club would like him to stay beyond the end of the season.

“If I stood naked in front of him, I might have a small chance of persuading him to stay,” joked club president Uli Hoeness earlier in the week.

– Lookman needs new boots –
Everton loanee Ademola Lookman grabbed the headlines on Saturday, scoring 12 minutes into his RB Leipzig debut to secure a late victory over Borussia Moenchengladbach. The 20-year-old Englishman might, however, want to invest in a pair of new boots.

“He was lucky that I didn’t take him off again straight away,” admitted Leipzig coach Ralph Hasenhuettl. “He was just sliding around in the boots he was wearing. They were the only pair he had brought with him from England, and he didn’t want to take them off.”

– Goalkeepers are guilty –
Both goalkeepers were left blushing in Gelsenkirchen as Werder Bremen snatched a late 2-1 win over Schalke.

Bremen ‘keeper Jiri Pavlenka allowed Yevhen Konoplyanka’s shot to slip through his fingers in the first half. His error was overshadowed by the woes of opposite number Ralf Faehrmann, however — he first fumbled a free-kick to gift Bremen an equaliser, before being nutmegged by Zlatko Junuzovic’s late winner.

“Ralf said sorry in the dressing room, and I told him he had nothing to apologise for,” said Schalke coach Domenico Tedesco.

– Gregoritsch is NFL mad –
Michael Gregoritsch will have enjoyed watching the Super Bowl on Sunday, having secured three points for Augsburg just hours earlier. The Austrian scored Augsburg’s second in a 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, and celebrated by miming a quarterback’s throw.

“I will definitely be watching the Super Bowl later,” admitted Gregoritsch after the game. “My four best friends are coming over; I never sleep after a game anyway.”