Werder Bremen – TSV 1899 Hoffenheim 2:3 (1:2), goals: 0:1 Beier (8th), 1:1 Schmid (17th), 1:2 Prömel (29th), 2:2 Stage (90th). .+1), 2:3 Bülter (90.+2)
A fan march before the home game brought luck last time. When the Bremen Ultras and other sympathizers marched in thousands through the city to the stadium, Werder made it clear early on that they would stay in the league against 1. FC Köln in May. But it’s not a sure-fire success, like a “Corteo” (Italian for fan march); this time it had no effect. A goal from Hoffenheim deep in stoppage time handed Werder their next home defeat in this complicated season. Bremen has already lost three of the last four games. A bad phase, at least.
Werder were able to quickly equalize Beier’s early lead, but often seemed too far away from the action, both offensively and defensively. Hoffenheim deservedly took the lead again through Prömel; It was only in the second half that Bremen’s efforts to score finally became more urgent. Apparently the reward came in stoppage time when Stage hit the far corner with full force from 16 meters, but unfortunately the Bremen team forgot to defend in the celebration of the supposedly won point. Bülter silenced the stadium.
RB Leipzig – VfL Bochum 0:0 (0:0)
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Emil Forsberg (front) also failed from the spot for Leipzig.
(Photo: Michael Taeger/Jan Huebner/Imago)
The good thing about games against Manchester City is that afterwards you usually play against a weaker team. Pep Guardiola’s team showed RB on Wednesday what level the European leaders are at, so a home game against VfL Bochum is just right – right? The lively Xavi Simons spun around Keven Schlotterbeck’s outstretched thigh early in the game, and through a mixture of contact and cleverness, he fell and was awarded the penalty. He stepped up personally – and pushed the ball so weakly into the corner that Manuel Riemann held onto the ball straight away.
Bochum barricaded themselves, Leipzig started unsuccessfully until shortly after the second penalty chance came, Ordets had kicked Poulsen. This time Emil Forsberg ran in – and missed almost as poorly against Riemann. The 35-year-old Bochum goalkeeper, who probably walks between genius and madness like no other Bundesliga goalkeeper, is showing the bright side of his skills this time. Penalties are one of Riemann’s strengths: out of a total of 94 penalties in his career, he saved 34, and eleven out of 23 in the Bundesliga – both of which are extraordinary rates. Leipzig loses two points to the Bochum goalkeeper, the first real setback for Rose’s team this season.
FC Augsburg – SV Darmstadt 98 1:2 (0:0), goals: 0:1 Skarke (52nd), 0:2 Kempe (70th, penalty kick), 1:2 Demirovic (86th)
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Purely the thing: Tobias Kempe celebrates after his penalty goal for Darmstadt.
(Photo: Eduard Martin/Jan Huebner/Imago)
The observers agreed: FC Augsburg had better win this game if Enrico Maaßen wants to be Augsburg’s coach for a long time. And then an afternoon like this: Maaßen tried to get his team to play ambitious football, but it went terribly wrong. The FCA seemed overwhelmed and only collected bad passes and other ball losses. Darmstadt’s Skarke scored the first goal of the afternoon, a nice blast into the near corner. The second, a penalty from Kempe, was not long in coming. Augsburg’s rebellion came late, Demirovic scored from the turn shortly before the end. That wasn’t enough. It could be pretty tight for the coach now.
VfB Stuttgart – VfL Wolfsburg 3:1 (0:1), Tore: 0:1 Gerhardt (34.), 1:1 Guirassy (67., Elfmeter), 2:1 Guirassy (78.), 3:1 Guirassy (82.)
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What would VfB Stuttgart actually be without Serhou Guirassy (center)?
(Photo: Thomas Kienzle/AFP)
One of the oldest rules of football says: When strikers score, they score everything. If they don’t hit, they don’t hit anything. Like so many pieces of wisdom in this sport, this one is only trivial at first glance and VfL Wolfsburg had to learn this the hard way. Stuttgart’s striker Serhou Guirassy is now the latest and best proof of this theory and has now reached 13 goals this season; by the way, the top scorer scored 16 goals last year.
Against Wolfsburg it was first a penalty, and that has to go in first (see Leipzig), shortly afterwards an elegant dribble and then a well-considered dust-off. Hat trick in 15 minutes, game turned, Bundesliga record for goals at this point. Guirassy would probably win the lottery even without playing. You wouldn’t actually have to call what Guirassy has right now, not a run, but an overflow, if that didn’t sound too much like a bathroom. And VfB? Has 18 points, is the league leader at least until Sunday and has a striker who, extrapolated, would have 63 goals this season at the end of the season if he maintained this rate.
Borussia Dortmund – 1. FC Union Berlin 4:2 (1:2), goals: 1:0 Füllkrug (7th), 1:1 Gosens (9th), 1:2 Bonucci (31st, penalty kick), 2: 2 Schlotterbeck (49th), 3:2 Brandt (54th), 4:2 Ryerson (71st)
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Involved in some of the goals: Dortmund’s Niclas Füllkrug (front).
(Photo: Ralf Treese/Imago)
A warm welcome, new and old national players: The duel between the two Champions League participants offered a nice sample from Julian Nagelsmann’s newly nominated team. There was the new striker Kevin Behrens, who chased the ball onto the crossbar for Union after a few minutes (albeit from a narrow offside position). Shortly afterwards there was the other national striker Niclas Füllkrug, who was fatally left alone by Union’s defense from a corner before his goal to make it 1-0. Other side: Corner Union and the national left-back Robin Gosens came to the header and headed Füllkrug in such a way that the ball hit the goal unstoppably to make it 1-1. Füllkrug discussed the scene with Mats Hummels, who has been part of the national selection again since Friday.
That was a spectacular start, but the VAR festival in Dortmund followed. BVB defended Union’s free-kick cross catastrophically, Alex Kral headed into the goal – but then the video referee needed more than three minutes to set an offside line. After what felt like an eternity the decision came: no goal. When Füllkrug slightly deflected a Reus cross into the goal shortly afterwards, it took the VAR two minutes to rule it offside. And shortly afterwards, referee Patrick Ittrich himself was on the screen and this time he quickly recognized that Hummels had clearly fouled Sheraldo Becker, and Leonardo Bonucci, who had previously been so unfortunate in the Union jersey, sank the penalty to make it 2-1. The fact that stoppage time in the first half was only six minutes was at least inconsistent. The broadcaster Sky reported that the delay in the offside decisions was due to a system crash.
Back to the national players: Schlotterbeck is no longer that, Nagelsmann complained about the lack of consistency in their performances. Possibly spurred on by this, Schlotterbeck shot directly during an advance – and thundered the ball with his left into the top right corner of the goal. A dream goal. And this fair game wasn’t yet at its peak. BVB countered against Union in their own stadium, Julian Brandt (national player) initiated it himself, Marco Reus (ex-national player) kept a perfect overview – and Brandt scored to take the lead again. Julian Ryerson scored the final score. Dortmund have a lot more points than they probably expected and Union have their first small crisis since Urs Fischer took over as coach.
