Five things to know from a big Saturday in the Bundesliga

The marquee Bundesliga matches of the weekend featured four big names but zero goals.

Bayern Munich survived a trip to Bayer Leverkusen with a point, while Borussia Dortmund failed to gain ground on Bayern with a scoreless draw at Hertha BSC.

With the league season more than halfway over, there were still plenty of talking points from a big Saturday in Germany. Here’s what you need to know.

Bayern Munich sputters in first match after Guardiola announcement

Five days after it was revealed manager Pep Guardiola would take over Manchester City this summer, Bayern settled for a point at the BayArena in Leverkusen.

Two late Xabi Alonso yellow cards within minutes of each other reduced Bayern to 10 men, but Bayer Leverkusen couldn’t capitalize. Seeing as how Bayern has only won once in its last seven visits, a draw wasn’t the worst result.

Both teams were uncharacteristically wasteful, with shots flying high, wide and everywhere but in the back of the net. The best chance may have come from on-fire Mexican international Javier Hernandez, whose gorgeous volley attempt in the 53rd minute didn’t miss by much:

Bayern failed to win for just the third time in 20 league matches this season, having also drawn at Eintracht Frankfurt in late October before losing at Borussia Monchengladbach in early December.

In truth, even a Bayer Leverkusen win wouldn’t have put much of a dent in Bayern’s chase for a record fourth straight Bundesliga title. Bayer moved ahead of Monchengladbach into fifth place on goal differential, but still languishes 21 points behind Bayern in the league table.

Meanwhile, Guardiola’s side began a tricky set of away fixtures in the second half of the season, with trips to VfL Wolfsburg, Dortmund and Hertha BSC still to come.

Americans square off as Dortmund, Hertha BSC battle to stalemate

John Brooks and Christian Pulisic faced each other at the Olympiastadion in Berlin, with Brooks playing a full 90 minutes and Pulisic coming on as a substitute in the 71st minute.

Both gave a good account of themselves. Brooks helped keep the Bundesliga’s highest-scoring team at bay, using his size and positioning to thwart build-ups and crosses into the box. Pulisic made his second appearance for Dortmund’s first team and added a spring to the attack’s step despite no goals to show for it.

Still only 17 years old, the Hershey, Pennsylvania, native is expected to be a major part of the United States men’s national team going forward, as is Brooks.

Dortmund remains second in the league table with 45 points, eight behind Bayern Munich, while remains third with 35 points.

Wolfsburg falls even further back from the top four

Last season’s league runners-up fell deeper into despair with a thorough outclassing at FC Schalke 04.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar struck first in the 24th minute for Schalke, and Johannes Geis added a second goal in the 35th minute before Alessandro Schöpf sealed a 3-0 victory with a goal in the 87th minute.

Wolfsburg now sits in eighth in the league table with 27 points, six behind Schalke for fourth place and the last Champions League spot. If the Wolves miss out on the competition next season, their away form will be largely to blame, having earned a paltry six points from nine matches thus far.

German international Julian Draxler was particularly ineffective in his return to the Veltins-Arena, where he spent four seasons before being sold to Wolfsburg last summer as a replacement for the departed Kevin de Bruyne.

Stafylidis stars but FC Ingolstadt 04 wins on late penalty

Ingolstadt won for the second time in three fixtures with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over FC Augsburg at home.

Greek international Konstantinos Stafylidis put the visitors in front with a stunning strike in the 14th minute, catching a clearance cleanly with the outside of his left foot:

The Augsburg left back also saved a goal shortly after, clearing Dario Lezcano’s shot off the line.

Ingolstadt equalized in the 59th minute, however, when Marvin Matip headed home from close range, and the hosts nabbed all three points thanks to a controversial penalty when Augsburg’s Ragnar Klavan was judged to have fouled Pascal Gross in the box.

Moritz Hartman converted the spot kick in the 85th minute and Ingolstadt moved into ninth place with 26 points, while Augsburg sits in 13th, just two points clear of the relegation play-off between the third-to-last team in the Bundesliga and the third-place team from the second tier.

VFB Stuttgart wins fourth straight to keep racing away from relegation

Stuttgart scored twice in the first half and won 4-2 at Eintracht Frankfurt, further distancing itself from the bottom three.

Christian Gentner and Daniel Didavi were on-target in the 27th minute and stoppage time, respectively. Eintracht pulled one back through Alexander Meier early in the second half, but a Georg Niedermeier header and Filip Kostic penalty sealed a fourth straight win for Stuttgart, which hasn’t lost in the league since Nov. 29.

Now 11th in the table, Stuttgart sat at the very bottom in mid-December but has since taken advantage of fixtures against middling sides and a big home win over Wolfsburg.

Eintracht, however, is 14th and seems destined for a relegation scrap just two points outside the drop zone.