SC Freiburg – FC Bayern Munich 0: 1 (0: 0), Tor: 0:1 Matthijs de Ligt (51.)
The game looked almost the same as on Tuesday, the only thing missing was the floodlights in the Allianz Arena: As in the DFB Cup defeat, Bayern pushed the brilliantly defending Freiburg deep into their penalty area, as in the 2-1 defeat in Munich, the favorites had more Possession and Chances. And like four days ago, there was no escaping the thought that the team lacked a true centre-forward, especially as Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was out with a knee problem. Serge Gnabry with a header, Sadio Mané with a chip and later twice Leroy Sané alone in front of goalkeeper Mark Flekken aimed too imprecisely to name just a few examples. Just before the break, Munich almost fell behind because Alphonso Davies wasn’t careful and Ritsu Doan hit the post from close range.
The difference: This time, the groundbreaking dream goal was not scored by Freiburg’s Nicolas Höfler, but by Bayern defender Matthijs de Ligt. Just when you thought Bayern Munich could dribble aimlessly around the Freiburg penalty area and pass around for hours or days, the Dutchman shot the ball into the corner with a long-range shot. And yes, Bayern will probably be very happy to meet Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday – and not again Freiburg, with whom Joshua Kimmich even messed up after the final whistle and saw yellow.
Borussia Dortmund – Union Berlin 2:1 (1:0), Tore: 1:0 Donyell Malen (28.), 1:1 Kevin Behrens (61.), 2:1 Youssoufa Moukoko (79.)
Dortmund’s offensive around Sebastien Haller was able to celebrate twice against Union – the late 2-1 made it 2-1 by substitute Youssoufa Moukoko.
(Foto: Lars Baron/Getty Images)
The second top game of the day was decided by the substitutes – on both sides. In contrast to the previous week, Borussia Dortmund presented itself as a very mature, concentrated top team in the first half and deservedly took the lead with Malen in the 28th minute. However, Union worked their way back into the game as the game went on and got into the game better in the second half: Behrens’ 1-1 in the 61st minute was well deserved.
Then, however, the changes to misfortune or happiness followed: Marco Reus had actually already dribbled on the way to the Berliner Tor when Paul Seguin – who had just come on for the goalscorer Behrens – came running, whose cautious clarification became the perfect template for him as well substitute Youssoufa Moukoko. Dortmund’s striker circled Frederik Rönnow, pushed in to make it 2-1 and cheered in the arms of Edin Terzic, who, like the 81,000 spectators, seemed relieved that the fight for the championship was still completely open after the 27th matchday.
Bayer Leverkusen – Eintracht Frankfurt 3: 1 (2: 0), Tore: 1:0 Amine Adli (10.), 2:0 Moussa Diaby (35.), 2:1 Djibril Sow (75.), 3:1 Sardar Azmoun (90.+4.)
Amine Adli scored Leverkusen’s first goal against Frankfurt, followed by Moussa Diaby.
(Photo: Christof Koepsel/Getty Images)
Bayer Leverkusen’s season is pretty much parallel to Amine Adli’s season. At the beginning of the first half of the season, the offensive player had to look on, after tearing a thigh tendon in the final stages of last season, the 22-year-old Frenchman made his comeback in mid-August in the 2-1 draw against Augsburg – and immediately broke his collarbone in the game. Another forced break of six weeks followed. After the change of coach to Xabi Alonso, Adli slowly but surely found his old strength and that can be said of the whole team.
Bayer has now won five Bundesliga games in a row – and Adli has contributed two goals and three assists. On Saturday against Frankfurt he scored to make it 1-0 (10th) and helped Diaby make it 2-0 (34th). And the Frankfurters? They made it 2-1 through Sow (74′), but their Bundesliga curve is exactly the opposite of that of Leverkusen, for whom Azmoun scored again (90’+5′). Consequently, Eintracht has now fallen behind Bayer in the table and in the fight for international places.
FSV Mainz 05 – Werder Bremen 2: 2 (0: 0), Goals: 1:0 Ludovic Ajorque (85th), 1:1 Jens Stage (87th), 2:1 Nelson Weiper (90th+3), 2:2 Niclas Füllkrug (90th+4)
Another saving goal this time: Niclas Füllkrug experienced an afternoon with Werder Bremen that got really exciting late in the game. He scored to make it 2-2.
(Foto: Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)
The Mainz crowd knew what to expect: SV Werder had taken a lousy four points from the past seven games, while FSV had bagged 17 points during this period, which was the best in the league. But people go to football because they don’t know how it will end. They didn’t know that at halftime either, because after a first half with a lot of so-called intensity and without any goals worth mentioning, nothing of the last recorded form curves could be guessed. When Anton Stach scored for Mainz shortly after the break, he was ruled offside.
As the game went on, Mainz became a little more powerful, while Werder increasingly focused on defending. The crowd knew what to expect again: Werder had not played 0-0 once since Ole Werner took over as coach in November 2021, so why should it happen this time. And indeed: Ajorque still made it 1-0 (85th), the jubilation had hardly subsided when Stage hit a header to make it 1-1, then Mainz made it 2-1 through 18-year-old Weiper, which in turn affected the form curves seemed to confirm. But that was still not it: Bremen had the last word – in the end, Füllkrug made it 2-2. In football, you really don’t know how it’s going to end.
FC Augsburg – 1. FC Cologne 1: 3 (1: 2), Goals: 0-1 Ellyes Skhiri (7th, according to video evidence), 0-2 Eric Martel (16th), 1-2 Ruben Vargas (29th), 1-3 Linton Maina (59th)
The early lead for Cologne in Augsburg: Ellyes Skhiri pushes the ball over the line to make it 0:1.
(Photo: Sebastian Widmann/Getty Images)
FC Augsburg’s aim for itself is to establish itself in the Bundesliga in such a way that those involved no longer have to keep talking about staying up. After all, FCA has actually played in the upper house without interruption since 2011, so just staying in is getting boring. The game plan now offered the Swabians a great opportunity to really break away from the relegation zone – most recently they were extremely strong at home with four wins and a draw in five games, and now they were allowed to play against the Cologne team, who were so weak recently, who are one in the table Point worse off before the rest of the basement competition had to compete against each other.
But as so often, the Augsburgers missed the chance. It happened very quickly: In the 7th minute, Skhiri scored to make it 1-0 for Cologne, the video evidence showed: no offside by a hair’s breadth. And after a good quarter of an hour, Martel ran undisturbed after a quick throw-in and increased. Vargas brought Augsburg back up (29′), but the guests had better chances in the second half as well – and after just under an hour Maina made it 3-1. Cologne has overtaken Augsburg again and may soon no longer have to use the word league.
