In the constant debate over which league is better between the German Bundesliga or the English Premier League, recent performances have started to shift towards the former. They’ve prompted Sport1 journo Pit Gottschalk to reassess his initial view of the German teams in the Champions League.
Gottschalk’s first impression was that Bundesliga teams in Europe this season were iffy following narrow wins for both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund over a Kylian Mbappé-less Paris Saint-Germain and a disorderly Chelsea FC, respectively. RB Leipzig then clawed back to a 1-1 draw with Manchester City while Eintracht Frankfurt fell 2-0 to Napoli. In the Champions League, German teams have two wins, one draw, and one loss whereas English teams have a record of three losses (Liverpool FC, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur), and one draw (Man City).
For context, the Bundesliga has three clubs in the Europa League (Union Berlin, SC Freiburg, Bayer Leverkusen) but none in the Europa Conference League; the Premier League has two in the EL and only one in the ECL (Manchester United and Arsenal FC, and West Ham United, respectively). We can already see that German teams have bettered English clubs in Europe.
Although Gottschalk’s report only compared those two leagues, I decided not to include La Liga, Serie A, and Ligue 1 because I would argue that the Prem and the BuLi are the top two leagues in the world. I will concede that the Premier League still trumps the Bundesliga, objectively speaking, but the way things are going suggest that there may be a shift towards the Bundesliga as THE football league in Europe, and maybe the world, if it hasn’t started already.
At the time of writing, only five points separate first and fifth in the Bundesliga (Bayern are also tied on 46 points with Dortmund) while 16 points separate first and fifth in England. To further support the claim of Germany having better clubs than England, Bayern have lost only two games the entire season, to FC Augsburg and Borussia Mönchengladbach, both Bundesliga teams. Dortmund went from fumbling away a 2-0 advantage in the 89th minute against Werder Bremen to closing the gap on top spot; BVB are now second only on goal difference. Leipzig also picked themselves up after a rough patch during and after the Jesse Marsch reign. Union, whom Bayern just smashed 3-0, managed a 0-0 draw with lowly Schalke and Gladbach lost 4-0 to Mainz after beating Bayern 3-2. All this goes to show how unpredictable the league can be.
Although some fans may not come to accept the fact the Bundesliga is defying their perceptions of the league, it is a welcome sight to see the league making waves in a world where many see the money-backed Premier League as king.
What do you think, reader? Is the Bundesliga really better than the Premier League or have we just hit a purple patch and anticipating the end of a honeymoon? Head to the comments and share your thoughts!