Change at the top in the Bundesliga power rankings
As the cream continues to rise in the Bundesliga, some teams in the middle of the table are struggling to readapt to competitive action.
From now until the end of the Bundesliga season, beIN SPORTS' power rankings will chart the rise and fall of the 18 clubs as they battle for the title, jostle for Europe qualification or fight for their survival in the top flight.
Every goal from R27:
Here are the power rankings heading into Round 28:
1: Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen ascends the power rankings to sit in pole position, a place that generally causes jitters among the club's long-suffering fans. Spearheaded by a Kai Havertz in ruthless form, Peter Bosz's team proved too good for fellow top four-dweller Moenchengladbach in the match of the round.
Last week: 2nd
2: Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund backed up its convincing win over Revierderby rival Schalke by ending Wolfsburg's seven-game unbeaten run, 2-0, in a much tougher match-up. With a midweek Klassiker looming, manager Lucien Favre used all five substitutes and with Jadon Sancho enjoying more game time this week, pleasant selection headaches loom for the Dortmund manager.
Last week: 1st
3: Bayern Munich
The defending champion raced out of the blocks and was 3-0 up by the time the substitutes were settling in for the second half. With a Klassiker against chief title rival Borussia Dortmund bearing down, manager Hansi Flick will not be impressed that Eintracht's Martin Hinteregger jagged two quicks goals midway through the second half. Hinteregger added a third, an own goal for Bayern, but Dortmund won't be in as generous a mood on Wednesday.
Last week: 4th
4: Hertha BSC
Is a derby really a derby when no fans are there to light it up? There was a lot on the line in the second ever top flight meeting between Berlin rivals Hertha and FC Union, but it was the home side that shone at a cavernous Olimpiastadion, making it two wins from two since the break, under the tutelage of new manager Bruno Labbadia. Hertha's star-studded forward line is firing - Former AC Milan marksman Kristof Piatek can't get a start - with seven goals for and none against.
Last week: 6th
5: RB Leipzig
Nothing helps RB Leipzig's stars play themselves into form like a game against Mainz, against which Die Rotenbullen have scored 13 goals in two games this season. Timo Werner helped himself to a hat-trick, Kevin Kampl and Marcel Sabitzer played a fine supporting hand as Julien Nagelsmann's side moved back to third.
Last week: 7th
6: Borussia Moenchengladbach
Moenchengladbach relinquished third spot after running into a hot Bayer Leverkusen outfit, who have burst out of the blocks after the league restart. Gladbach has three winnable matches over the next three weeks, before a huge clash against Bayern Munich on 14 June. It will need consistency to still be alive in the title race by then.
Last week: 3rd
Augsburg was just one of two teams outside the top five to post a win this week, thumping an out-of-sorts Schalke 3-0. Classic Augsburg, a team capable of punishing any side slightly off its game, but rarely with the consistency required to challenge for higher honours. Still, buoyed by this result Heiko Herlich's men will fancy their chances of ensuring survival in the coming rounds.
Last week: 13th
8: Wolfsburg
Tough ask for any team to take on Dortmund in its current form, but Wolfsburg hadn't lost since January in a run that included wins over Hertha BSC, Hoffenheim, Augsburg and Mainz. Lucien Favre's side is a different proposition though and, while Wolfsburg managed to contain Erling Haaland and Jadon Sancho, the visitor had too many weapons, sewing up a 2-0 win via Paolo Guerrero and Julian Brandt, long before Felix Klaus was shown red in the 82nd-minute.
Last week: 5th
9: SC Freiburg
Freiburg just can't click into gear, suffering an inexplicable loss to Werder, a week after frustrating RB Leipzig. With Schalke and Wolfsburg losing, Freiburg stays within a well-timed long ball of the European places, but it will be looking for a reversal of fortunes against Eintracht Frankfurt this week.
Last week: 8th
10: FC Koln
FC Koln has been involved in two of the five draws in the league since the resumption of play and for the time being, it is getting away with it as clubs in the lower two thirds of the table struggle to regain whatever momentum they had when play stopped. It won't last though and Koln will be desperate to grab a win against unpredictable Hoffenheim midweek, before a big clash against RB Leipzig in R29.
Last week: 11th
11: Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim is winless in seven matches dating back to February and looks a far cry from the team that took the scalps of Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen at the start of the season. After being hammered by Hertha BSC in R26, Alfred Schreuder's team was expected to bounce back against last-placed Paderborn and four minutes in, did just that, scoring the opener. That's the way things stayed for all of five minutes, as Paderborn jagged a baffling equaliser. For the next 81 minutes, Hoffenheim confirmed its slide down the power rankings.
Last week: 15th
12: Schalke
Schalke's players could be forgiven for wishing they were still isolating at home after suffering a 3-0 loss to Augsburg to go with the 4-0 derby trouncing at the hands of Dortmund last week. Adding injury to those insults, Julien Wagner's numbers took a hit with the loss of Germany international Suat Serdar. While other results helped Schalke out, it must bounce back quickly midweek or it can wave goodbye to the European qualification spots.
Last week: 9th
13: Union Berlin
Has there been a team more adversely effected by the absence of fans than the Iron Men? Union rises for its fabled '12th-man' and the absence of the very supporters who voluntarily rebuilt the club's stadium to help the club stay afloat is hampering the club's efforts to make its first season in the top flight more than just a cameo. A derby defeat to red hot Hertha hurts, but not surviving in the top flight will hurt more.
Last week: 12th
14: Eintracht Frankfurt
For a team that prides itself on fast, entertaining, attacking play, the Eagles have been blown off the park two weeks running, conceding four first half goals in their last two games, against Moenchengladbach and Bayern Munich respectively. They get a slight midweek reprise, against struggling Freiburg, bu they'll need to remember how to defend earlier than the 45-minute mark of they're a chance of winning.
Last week: 14th
15: Mainz
Did Mainz's epic comeback a week earlier sap the energy out of the team? Was Timo Werner keen to show Jurgen Klopp what he was made of, by embarrassing the Liverpool manager's former club? Whatever it was, Mainz looked hapless as RB Leipzig piled on five more goals to go with they eight it scored against the same opponent last November.
Last week: 10th
16: Werder Bremen
After being blown away by Bayer Leverkusen last week, Werder Bremen did what no relegation team should and bounced back with a win, despite its best efforts at self-sabotage after Philipp Bargfrede saw red late on. To knock off Freiburg is no mean feat and shows that Werder Bremen should be nowhere near the bottom three. It gets another chance to work on fixing that midweek, but it won't be easy against a desperate Moenchengladbach outfit.
Last week: 18th
17: Paderborn
In the absence of injured striker Strelli Mamba, Paderborn continues to defy its last-placed predicament by not losing. After drawing Dusseldorf a week earlier, Steffen Baumgart's men backed that up in a 1-1 draw against Hoffenheim in which both goals were scored in the first 9 minutes, then nothing of note happened for the next 81. Still, the result was enough for Paderborn to climb off the bottom of the power rankings.
Last week: 16th
18: Fortuna Dusseldorf
The draw with Paderborn did nothing for Fortuna, which will need to string a couple of wins together to move out of the relegation play-off position - the third-last Bundesliga club plays off against the third-placed 2.Bundesliga club for the final promotion spot. Mainz's draw leaves Dusseldorf with it all to do to escape that predicament.
Last week: 17th
