First matchday 2014 ahead
After around a month-long winter break Bundesliga is back for more with the first matchday of 2014 and it will start with a true German classic as Borussia Moenchengladbach will receive FC Bayern Munich on Friday night. The followers Dortmund and Leverkusen will play on Saturday against Augsburg and Freiburg while new-arrival Kevin de Bruyne will meet Hanover with his new club Wolfsburg. Matchday 18 then will be round up by another classic as Hamburger SV and Schalke 04 will go head to head on Sunday afternoon.
Kevin de Bruyne transferred to Wolfsburg in winter.
First matchday of 2014 has some classics waiting for football fans in Germany. Borussia Moenchengladbach and FC Bayern Munich will open the second leg of season 2013/2014 on Friday night. It will be the duel of the two best providers so far as Max Kruse and Franck Ribery both assisted eight goals in first leg of the season. For FCB it will also be about their astonishing record of 41 unbeaten league games in a row so far.
The following teams Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund will play on Saturday. Bayer Leverkusen will face SC Freiburg in a rematch of DFB Pokal´s round of last 16 a couple of weeks ago where Leverkusen won 2:1. In Bundesliga however SCF only managed to gain one of the last 15 possible points against Bayer. Dortmund meanwhile will have to make up for a very bad run at the end of first leg which made them drop down to fourth place. Their coming opponent FC Augsburg might be good for that as they are still to win a match against BVB.
North derby for de Bruyne
VfL Wolfsburg added to their squad in winter by buying Kevin de Bruyne for 17 million euros. The new-arrival will meet Hanover 96 with his new club in the first North derby of 2014. For Hanover it will be the first match with new head coach Tayfun Korkut in charge after Mirko Slomas dismissal during the holidays.
1. FC Nuremberg meanwhile will fight for their first victory this season as they have not managed to secure on during first leg of the campaign. TSG 1899 Hoffenheim will be their opponent to beat for that. VfB Stuttgart will receive 1. FSV Mainz 05 and the night match will take place between Hertha BSC Berlin and Eintracht Frankfurt.
Another classic on Sunday afternoon
The Sunday will start with another North derby, although it surely lacks a bit of recent history, as SV Werder Bremen will receive Eintracht Braunschweig. The night match will be another classic to round up matchday 18 as Hamburger SV are going to receive FC Schalke 04. HSV recently cleared the way for outsorcing their professional football unit during annual general assembly and backed up the squad with some loan-based winter transfers like offensive player Ola John as Maximilian Beister ruptured his crucial ligament tie in training camp.
