Leipzig beats Freiburg
©IMAGO
FC Bayern secured a victory over 1. FC Köln on Wednesday evening and set a new Bundesliga record. With 3:1 (1:1) in the cathedral city, the record champions ended the best first half of the season in history. Thanks to an outstanding Andrej Kramaric, Hoffenheim also won 5-1 (4-0) against Borussia Mönchengladbach and RB Leipzig defeated SC Freiburg 2-0 (0-0).
The record champions had a lot of trouble winning against newly promoted 1. FC Köln, but in the end they weren’t stopped by a nearly ten-minute pyrotechnic interruption and a mistake by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Serge Gnabry (45th+5), Min-jae Kim (71st) and Lennart Karl (84th) turned FC’s celebrated lead thanks to a long-lasting shot from Linton Maina (41st minute) into Munich’s 15th win with two draws in the first 17 games of the season.
Three days after the 8-1 win against VfL Wolfsburg, coach Vincent Kompany’s team ended the first half of the season as confident half-time champions with 47 points and plus 53 goals. In the first half of the 2013/2014 season, FCB also had 47 points and 35 goals.
In order to reach the record mark, an increase in performance was necessary after the break. As in the cup game at the end of October, the duel between the super talents initially fell flat. At FC, Said El Mala was back in the starting line-up this time, but Karl was still on the bench at Bayern and was later substituted on. And like Bayern’s 4-1 cup win, Cologne came out trumps in the first half. The promoted team repeatedly posed problems for the record champions with their quick and committed switching game.
Because Bayern didn’t play nearly as greedily as they did over large parts of the overall outstanding first half of the season, the surprise was actually in the air. Maina rewarded the Rhinelanders, who have not won since the beginning of November, for their courageous performance to date. After a listless challenge from Gnabry in the middle of Cologne’s half, Maina ran to the opponent’s sixteen-yard box and hit the quite tenable ball over the hands of the astonished Neuer into the Bayern goal.
The Neuer faux pas wasn’t enough for the Cologne team to take the lead at halftime. With a stroke of genius, Gnabry made up for his timid duel behavior just ten minutes earlier. He beat FC keeper Marvin Schwäbe from a tight angle with a crazy shot. After the change, Bayern, as expected, became better and, above all, more dominant. The pressure from the guests increased with every minute. However, there were no top-class opportunities for a long time. This made Cologne continue to believe in the surprise – until the strong Kim headed it in to make it 2-1 for Bayern. Karl also came late to his appearance, which he crowned with his fourth goal of the season.
Kramaric shoots down Gladbach
Hoffenheim has only lost one of its last ten league games. While the Kraichgauer celebrated their fifth home win in a row and remain a hot candidate for the European Cup, Gladbach experienced a lesson with coach Eugen Polanski at his former place of work. Shuto Machino’s goal to make it 1:4 (68′) didn’t change that.
It was a special return for Polanski. “Actually, they should name the stadium after me,” the 39-year-old joked beforehand. From 2013 he played for Hoffenheim for five and a half years. Today’s national coach Julian Nagelsmann once promoted him to captain. On the sidelines, Polanski had to watch with increasing despair as his team was hopelessly outnumbered. The Hoffenheim team stormed full of enthusiasm with the young stars Fisnik Asllani and Lemperle – and of course Kramaric: In his 302nd Bundesliga game, the 34-year-old also became the sole Croatian record holder, ahead of Zvonimir Soldo (301 league games).
After TSG’s game in Bremen was canceled last weekend, the hosts continued where they left off in 2025. Gladbach celebrated a 4-0 win against FC Augsburg at the start of the year. However, the recently strong defense immediately came into trouble: Ozan Kabak headed it onto the crossbar in the 3rd minute. After 20 minutes, Kramaric grabbed the ball and went to the penalty spot – without waiting for the decision on video evidence. Referee Christian Dingert then agreed with him over the stadium microphone, Philipp Sander had cleared Wouter Burger. Kramaric safely converted to make it 1-0.
The dismayed Borussia had not yet recovered from this when the Hoffenheim team – after a throw-in from the opponent – quickly struck again: Lemperle scored into the far corner on an assist from Asllani – his sixth goal of the season. The two young stars of TSG and veteran Kramaric were spinning nonstop, but Haris Tabakovic was nowhere to be seen for a long time. The striker, who was loaned to Gladbach from Hoffenheim, has recently been the focus of attention. The Bosnian international player miserably missed his tenth goal of the season shortly before half-time: he shot well past the national goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.
Kramaric did much better, using an assist from Asllani to make it 3-0 and once again overcome goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas. His lift to make it 4-0 was great. So the TSG star went into the dressing room at half-time with the ball under his arm – which he deserved to take home with him that day. The attacker also recommended the extension of his contract, which expires in the summer.
Leipzig beats Freiburg confidently
Two standards, two goals, finally another win: RB Leipzig started the new year successfully after a delay and ended its small crisis in results in time for the Bundesliga hit against Bayern Munich. The Saxons defeated SC Freiburg 2-0 (0-0) and celebrated another success after two defeats in a row.
In front of just 30,902 spectators, a double strike made the decision within three minutes. Defense chief Willi Orban (53rd minute) headed Leipzig into the lead after a free kick. Center forward Romulo (56th) also headed in after a corner. Leipzig thus consolidated third place behind leaders Munich and pursuers Dortmund.