Bundesliga team of the week - Matchday 28
The international break seems to have done the Bundesliga good, because Matchday 28 was packed with goals, lead changes and comebacks. Here is DW's the team of the week.
Goalkeeper: Lukas Hradecky
The Finnish national team goalkeeper made a number of good saves to keep Eintracht Frankfurt in the game until the very end. There was nothing he could do on the only goal of the match - a bicycle kick from Franck Ribery after Hradecky had thwarted a Mario Götze effort.
Defender: Danny Da Costa
Da Costa was all over the pitch for Ingolstadt, an impressive feat since he was coming from the position of right back. He assisted on both of the goals Ingolstadt scored from open play, the second one coming after he caught Schalke's Roman Neustädter napping on the ball. Hard work can be a winning formula.
Defender: Alejandro Galvez
The 3-2 score line by which Werder Bremen lost to Dortmund was unjust, because Galvez (right) and his teammates defended for their lives. The Bremen central defender also smashed in the go-ahead goal off of Gonzalo Castro, a lead the Green and Whites could not hold onto.
Defender: Cleber Reis
Keeping a clean sheet against Hannover is not normally a big deal, but in a week with 32 goals, Cleber deserves credit. The Brazilian defender also opened the scoring for Hamburg, which got them out of a rut and spurred them on to find two more.
Midfielder: Pablo De Blasis
De Blasis hasn't been getting many starts with Jairo Samperio in such good form of late, but on Saturday, he was in the starting 11 and made a strong case for more playing time in the future. His two goals helped Mainz keep Augsburg at arms length, each of them giving his club the lead.
Midfielder: Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Whenever it looks like Dortmund are going to falter, Mkhitaryan (right) finds a way to drive his team to victory. He provided Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with an open-field chance, one the goal scorer finished in style for the opener. He also found the head of Adrian Ramos for the winner just when it looked like Dortmund were going to drop points. That's what you call a clutch performance.
Midfielder: Peter Niemeyer
In a wild 2-2 draw against Stuttgart, Niemeyer stood out in Darmstadt's midfield as the newly promoted team picked up a valuable point in their Bundesliga survival quest. He was all over the park for Darmstadt, and he came close to getting a winner when Przemyslaw Tyton tipped his shot from a corner over the bar.
Midfielder: Franck Ribery
He is not the same player who once teased the Bundesliga with his pace and his skill,but on Saturday, Ribery showed he still has a few tricks in his bag. One of these was a stellar bicycle kick that will surely be a contender for goal of the season.
Forward: Julian Brandt
With their season trending in the wrong direction, Leverkusen needed a player to lift them back towards the Champions League. Brandt (right) did just that, combining with Hakan Calhanoglu to score the opening goal for Leverkusen - his second in as many games.
Forward: Kevin Volland
Hoffenheim looked down and out once Simon Zoller opened the scoring for Cologne, but Volland kept the fight going. He saw chance after chance, denied by Cologne's stingy defense, but he finally produced the equalizer just before fulltime.
Forward: Thorgan Hazard
Hazard (right) did his best Raffael impression, and it turned out to be very convincing. The forward scored the first brace of his Bundesliga career as part of a five-goal bombardment of Hertha Berlin.