The Bundesliga season is going into the final bend. With five matchdays to go, bundesliga.de has compiled a few interesting facts.
278 goals have been scored since the season restart following the winter break - an average of 2.6 per game.
The average for the first half of the season was slightly higher, at 2.8.
The overall campaign average of 2.7 is the highest among Europe’s top leagues (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France).
The goakeeper’s fear of the penalty-kick? 90.6 per cent of all penalties were converted in the first half of the season. Since the restart, that figure has plummeted to 62.5 per cent. Top “penalty-killer” is Hansa Rostock’s Stefan Wächter, who has saved three.
Only six games have ended scoreless since the season resumed - that’s half a game per matchday. The first half of the season saw eleven 0-0 draws - an average of 0.6 per matchday.
France lead the way in the European top leagues when it comes to no-goal numbers, with an average of 1.5 per matchday. The Bundesliga’s overall 0.6 average is the lowest.
Kevin Kuranyi is back: the Schalke striker rung in the coaching reign of Mike Büskens and Youri Mulder with a four-goal performance. The last time a player did that in the Bundesliga was on 30 October 2004, when VfL Wolfsburg’s Martin Petrov rattled in four against 1. FSV Mainz 05. Kuranyi has now scored eight goals since the restart. In the first half of the campaign he only managed six.
Getting better all the time: Luca Toni has netted eleven times in twelve league games since the winter break. Before that, the Bayern striker had hit nine goals in 15 appearances.
Competitive: Bayern, Hamburg, Bremen, Leverkusen and Schalke were the top five teams in the first part of the campaign. The form sides since the restart, alongside Bayern and Schalke, are Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Frankfurt.
Relegation battle: Only five points separate bottom-placed Nürnberg and Arminia Bielefeld in 15th - and the “Club” have a game in hand.
It remains every bit as tight at the bottom as it was earlier in the season. Going into the winter break, there were only four points separating 15th and 18th places. Now the difference is five, with one further point between positions 15 and 16.
At the other end, a crowd of contenders are battling it out behind Bayern for a place in Europe. A mere six points separate second-placed Bremen and Leverkusen in sixth. That’s a concentration unrivalled in Europe’s other top leagues.
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No midweek matches because of shorter winter break