There’s one thing my coach never tired of saying to me: “Hau den Ball ins Tor hinein!” – best translated with: “Just slam it into the back of the net!” What did yours used to say to you? What about this one: “So, let’s sit down and take stock.” If it was the last day of play, he might well have.

And with the 34th Bundesliga match-day now history, it’s time for all the trainers and all the teams to sit down and look back at the season. In the changing rooms after the matches, some teams were celebrating their successes, others mourning over their failures: often in the same stadium. In Berlin’s Olympiastadion, for example, the capital’s team – already unable to escape relegation – played against the champions Bayern München. Bayern went ahead and won 3:1, receiving the cup after the final whistle; Berlin could only look on.

At 15:30, when all the Bundesliga games kicked off on Saturday, the title race was talked up as a four-way battle. Anything could happen. It was, after all, the most exciting title tussle in Europe. But at 17:20, when all the matches were over, it seemed crazy to have thought that any team other than Wolfsburg could win this year’s Bundesliga title. VfL Wolfsburg had just destroyed Hannover 96 5-0 away from home. With the other results going their way, they opened up a two-point gap at the top of the league meaning they need only to draw at home against Bremen next weekend to clinch the championship.

All eyes were on Munich this weekend. The excitement was palpable. Bayern’s new coach, Jupp Heynckes, was surrounded by more photographers than a Hollywood star at the Oscars and media pundits lined up to speculate about tactics, formation and personnel. Would the post-Klinsmann era produce a positive result? And most importantly, would Bayern stay in the title race?

Luckily for Bayern and Heynckes it was hardly a herculean task that awaited them, for 17th placed Borussia Mönchengladbach were coming to town. So it came as no surprise that Bayern lifted themselves from their recent lethargy and dominated the contest straight from kick-off. Heynckes put the Brazilian Ze Roberto into the playmaker’s role behind the two strikers Luca Toni and Lukas Podolski, who was restored to the starting line-up after being used sparingly by Jürgen Klinsmann.

VfL Wolfsburg are not a much-liked club among fans in the league. They are financed by Volkswagen, are based in a city with about as much appeal as a VW Sharan and they draw scorn through their pitiful away support. But they have never attracted too much attention as they have tended to finish mid-table since being promoted to the Bundesliga in 1997.

That however has changed emphatically this season, as the “Wolves” are the best team in the second half of the season, notching up the most goals in the league. And following this weekend’s 3-0 away win against Bielefeld they have moved within one point of league leaders Hertha BSC Berlin and look a very good bet for the title. The team coached and managed by former Bayern München coach Felix Magath are playing exciting, attacking football with their very own “magic triangle”: The Bosnia and Herzegovina internationals Zvjezdan Misimovic and Edin Dzeko, as well as Brazilian striker Grafite.