St. Pauli wins point in Cologne
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Dream goalscorer Konrad Laimer and noble joker Harry Kane as a three-packer gave FC Bayern the next three points in the Bundesliga. The record champions ultimately won the Südschlager at VfB Stuttgart 5-0 (1-0) after a hard-fought first half and celebrated their twelfth win in the 13th league game of the season.
Laimer scored in the 11th minute for the heavily changed Munich team, who further cemented their lead in the table. The star striker Kane (66th/82nd, hand penalty/88th), who came on after around an hour, and Josip Stanisic (78th) followed up in front of 60,000 spectators. Stuttgart’s Lorenz Assignon, who took the penalty, saw the red card (81′).
As with the previous competitive game successes against FC St. Pauli (3:1) and at Union Berlin (3:2), this time too, things didn’t go as smoothly for Bayern as they had already seen in some cases this season. But they also ultimately solved the tricky task of winning the cup with confidence – and thus gained self-confidence for the next hurdle in the premier class.
For VfB, who faded after the break, the first league home defeat of the season was a setback in the race for the European Cup places.
Baum’s top comeback at FC Augsburg – Bayer 04 in bad luck
Five days after parting ways with Sandro Wagner, interim solution Manuel Baum got FC Augsburg up to speed and dealt a low blow to Champions League starters Bayer Leverkusen. Thanks to high levels of aggression and a lot of coolness in front of the opposing goal, the busy Augsburg team defeated the 2024 champions, who woke up too late, 2-0 (2-0). Bayer’s absence of the ailing Alejandro Grimaldo was clearly visible in the build-up to the game.
Kasper Hjulmand’s Leverkusen players have to be there from the start for Wednesday’s premier class home game against Newcastle United. In front of 30,000 spectators, they also had three bad luck with the aluminum against a passionately defending Augsburg team. However, Dimitrios Giannoulis (6th minute) and Anton Kade (28th) were hard-nosed in their goals for the relieved FCA.
1. FC Heidenheim sets the next exclamation mark in the relegation battle
1. FC Heidenheim is fueling its hopes in the Bundesliga relegation battle with its next last-minute win. Coach Frank Schmidt’s Ostalb club did not let itself be deterred by a deficit against SC Freiburg and fought to win 2-1 (0-1) against the Europa League participants.
The Heidenheim team came back with morale in the second half. Captain Patrick Mainka (59′) initially equalized before Stefan Schimmer caused Heidenheim’s ecstasy in stoppage time. A back pass from Anthony Jung to Freiburg goalkeeper Noah Atubolu failed, allowing the substitute striker to score. Johan Manzambi presented for the sports club in front of 15,000 spectators in the sold-out arena (40th).
Joker Jones stops St. Pauli’s negative run at the last second
FC St. Pauli took the momentum from reaching the cup quarter-finals with them into the Bundesliga and ended their negative run thanks to a late goal from Ricky-Jade Jones. After nine league defeats in a row, Alexander Blessin’s team fought to a 1-1 (0-0) draw at 1. FC Köln and thus scored their first point since mid-September. For Cologne under coach Lukas Kwasniok it was the fourth game in a row without a win.
The 50,000 spectators in the sold-out Cologne stadium experienced an uneventful game for long stretches before Cologne’s shooting star Said El Mala struck in the 51st minute and made Cologne look like the winner. But in the fourth minute of injury time, Joker Jones scored the goal to make it 1-1.
First home win since January: VfL Wolfsburg beats Union Berlin
VfL Wolfsburg won a home game for the first time in almost eleven months. The 3:1 (2:0) against Union Berlin ended a negative streak of 16 games without a win in the Volkswagen Arena if you add up the results in the Bundesliga and DFB Cup. The Wolves last won against Borussia Mönchengladbach (5-1) in their own stadium on January 14th.
In front of 23,045 spectators, VfL seemed to be safely in the lead thanks to three goals, some of which were beautifully played, by Patrick Wimmer (10th minute), Mohamed Amoura (30th) and Lovro Majer (59th). Nevertheless, the game was exciting again. Stanley Nsoki brought Union back in the 68th minute. Leopold Querfeld missed another penalty (90+1).