It’s raining Bundesliga goals: hallelujah! From cleverly crafted gems to net-ripping rockets, they’re flying in at a record rate this season, making ours the unrivalled division for goal numbers across Europe’s top-five leagues. And with Matchday 9 upon us, brace yourselves for another sackful of super strikes this weekend.
Put aside England’s Premier League (2.8 goals per game) and forget France’s Ligue 1 (2.7); say arrivederci to Serie A (2.6) and laters to the Spanish La Liga (2.5), the Bundesliga leads them all with an astonishing average of three goals a game: a five-year German top-flight high. We’ve had 3-3s and 4-3s, 7-1s and 4-2s while altogether, the total number of goals after only eight Matchdays is 221, that’s 34 more than at the same stage last season. In fact, there have only been more Bundesliga goals at this point on three previous occasions this millennium!
On top of the pile by an Autobahn mile are Borussia Dortmund, Lucien Favre’s formidable outfit racking up a new club record 27 goals after their eight matches to date. Indeed, Dortmund have been so deadly, the Black-Yellow behemoth have bagged at least four goals in each of their last four Bundesliga games. Let’s not even get started on BVB’s 26 goals in their last six games across all competitions – including four without reply against Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League. Our pulses are already pounding at a perilous pace.
If Axel Witsel’s memorable August Goal of the Month winner wowed on opening weekend, Jacob Bruun Larsen’s hot hit was September’s stand-out strike. Yet it’s Spaniard Paco Alcacer who has been the ace in Die Schwarzgelben‘s goal-getting pack, the recently arrived 25-year-old scoring seven times in just 126 minutes! That means Crown Prince Paco has powered home a goal every 18 minutes, and almost every one a peach. Alongside the club’s assist king Jadon Sancho, the Bundesliga has a partnership that are outdoing European football’s priciest attacking pair, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar.
Watch: All of Paco Alcacer’s Bundesliga goals so far
Sharing top position with Alcacer on top of the individual scoring charts with seven goals, is Eintracht Frankfurt forward Luka Jovic. Warming up with successful strikes in back-to-back matches prior to last weekend, the 20-year old super Serb stunned the global footballing community by netting FIVE times against poor Fortuna Düsseldorf last Friday night, becoming the youngest player ever to do so in the Bundesliga.
“I was 12 when I last scored five in the same game,” Jovic enthused after his awesome feat. His seven form part of 119 goals scored by strikers in what is becoming one of the most exciting seasons in Germany’s elite to date.
Watch: Luka Jovic made history with his five-goal haul against Fortuna
The wow factor has been enhanced with 32 goals from long-distance, this term’s tally amounting to seven added net-busting piledrivers compared with last year. For some awe-inspiring shooting finesse on that front, check out high-flying Werder Bremen midfielder Maximilian Eggestein of whose four goals this season, three have been delivered from downtown.
And even the Bundesliga’s coaches have been getting in on the act! They may not have actually been nodding them in from the sidelines, however, our shrewd tacticians have made the changes that have accounted for 45 goals from substitutes – or what our German friends refer to as Joker goals. After eight Matchdays, the number has never been as high on that front.
From Alfred Finnbogasson’s fabulous flick to Milot Rashica’s last-gasp thumper; Alcacer’s tasty chip to the Plea-Stindl-Hazard triumvirate turning them in at Borussia Mönchengladbach, we’ve been blessed with brilliance in 2018/19.
Even Bayern Munich’s James Rodriguez promised, “From here on in, it’s going to be good.” The Colombian may have been referring to the Bavarians’ recent return to form – with Robert Lewandowski recently back on the scoresheet after a 251-minute drought – but his message could easily apply to what’s ahead for us from Matchday 9 on.
Watch: After three games without a win, Bayern Munich have their mojo back
The questions at this point are numerous: can Hertha Berlin’s Slovak trickster Ondrej Duda add to his best-ever senior season and take his tally – which currently stands at six goals – into double figures? Will we see more Karim Bellarabi-inspired brilliance fire a Bayer Leverkusen revival? Can Hoffenheim’s English starlet Reiss Nelson – currently on four goals in four games – continue to make a name for himself in Europe’s most exciting league? And just how many goals can the Marco Reus-led BVB end this crazy campaign with?
In the midst of an Autumn of on-field fireworks, Bundesliga fans are happily suffering from goal fever as we wait to see the next scoring records that are set to fall. It’s football as it’s meant to be, and you can follow it all with us this weekend on bundesliga.com and across our social media channels.
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