Benjamin Omoike l Saturday, January 21, 2017
LAGOS, Nigeria – Nigerian fans are in for a feast of live football action as the German Bundesliga resumes this weekend, with leading digital television service provider, StarTimes set to beam all the actions from the pitches.
After going on a three-week winter break, the Bundesliga, which is the league of the current world champions, Germany is set to provide high-octane football drama as the teams scramble to unseat champions Bayern Munich from the top of the table.
Last season’s Bundesliga 2 champions SC Freiburg got the action underway yesterday against Bayern Munich, in what is shaping up to be the most unpredictable campaign in years.
In some selected matches to be shown live on StarTimes today, Werder Bremen host Dortmund, RB Leipzig welcome Frankfurt, Wolfsburg confront Hamburg while Schalke are home to Ingolstaard.
On Sunday, StarTimes will show Bayer Leverkusen’s home fixture against Hertha Berlin and Mainz game against Cologne.
A statement from StarTimes said they were poised to continue delivering top-notch football action from the best leagues from around the world.
“We remain committed to giving our esteemed customers and viewers the best live football action from top European leagues and the resumption of the Bundesliga will further add value to our viewers delight.”
Bayern starting the year in pole position may equate to business as usual but it’s all change when it comes to the teams queuing up behind them – not least in the form of second-place RB Leipzig, just three points adrift of the record champions 16 games into their maiden Bundesliga campaign. But what are the chances of the new boys from Saxony maintaining that role as Bayern’s biggest rivals through to the finish?
“Leipzig have done very well so far and every respect to them for that. But the team I’m most concerned about, without a doubt, are Borussia Dortmund,” Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge noted at the DFL Deutsche Fußball Liga New Year reception: “We can only be happy they’re twelve points behind us at the moment. They’ve been a bit unfortunate with injuries.”
In reality, that double-digit deficit makes a belated title bid by last season’s runners-up look somewhat unlikely. Leipzig, themselves six points clear of third-place Hertha Berlin, remain by far the Munich club’s most plausible challengers as it stands. “Leipzig are opponents who have to be taken seriously. I’m glad they’re there and they’re going to be hanging around at the top for years to come,” Bayern’s once-and-once-again president Uli Hoeneß reckons.
The new force on the Bundesliga block will need to be charged up from the off, as they start at home to fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt in Matchday 17’s late Saturday kick-off. This is a top game very much in the ‘surprise’ category, given that the visitors themselves only survived relegation by way of a late play-off goal last season. Hertha and still-unbeaten TSG 1899 Hoffenheim complete the unanticipated quartet currently separating Bayern from sixth-place Dortmund who, for all their pre-winter break inconsistency, remain just three points shy of a direct ticket to the UEFA Champions League.
