Victories for Bayern & Stuttgart
©IMAGO
VfL Bochum made a historic comeback in the home game against RB Leipzig: On matchday 18, thanks to a hat trick from Myron Boadu, the Revierklub turned 0:3 into 3:3 and thus collected an important point in the relegation battle. FC St. Pauli even scored three points, and they also achieved something remarkable in Heidenheim: It was their fourth win in their fourth away game against a team from Baden-Württemberg, although the Hamburgers have only achieved five wins.
Leipzig didn’t let anything go wrong in the first half in Bochum and ended up with just one point. Willi Orbán (10th minute), Antonio Nusa (13th) and substitute striker Christoph Baumgartner (21st) scored for the Red Bulls before Boadu staged a goal festival in the second half. In the 48th and 57th minutes, the Dutchman brought VfL back into contention and scored a penalty in the 61st minute to equalize. Bochum have equalized a three-goal deficit for the third time in their Bundesliga history; once (in the 1990/91 season) they were even able to turn a 0-3 deficit into a 4-3 win (see TM statistics : The biggest comebacks in the Bundesliga).
With the win against a direct competitor, St. Pauli gained a little breathing room in the relegation battle, but had to tremble for a long time. The Hamburg team won 2-0 (1-0) at the start of the second half of the season and thus moved away from 1. FC Heidenheim. It was the first sense of success for coach Alexander Blessin’s strong away team this calendar year after two previous defeats.
The recently highly praised Heidenheim winter newcomer Frans Krätzig, who caused a penalty, initiated the defeat. Johannes Eggestein safely converted the penalty in front of 15,000 spectators (25′) and Morgan Guilavogui made the decision in stoppage time (90’+2). Immediately beforehand, FCH had been denied their supposed equalizer due to an offside position.
VfB Stuttgart more and more CL contenders – Goretzka leads Bayern to victory
Runner-up VfB Stuttgart is increasingly underlining its renewed Champions League ambitions and is continuing its successful start to the year. In the one-sided first game of the second half of the Bundesliga, the Swabians celebrated an easy 4-0 (3-0) against the disappointing SC Freiburg. VfB collected the maximum possible nine points from the first three competitive games in 2025 and can look forward to the important premier class appearance on Tuesday in Bratislava with optimism.
Anthony Rouault (3rd minute), Ermedin Demirovic (17th) and Nick Woltemade (45th+4) gave the fans a party atmosphere. With their goals they decided the prestigious duel in the first half. Substitute Deniz Undav scored the final score (80th). In the fight for the European Cup places, VfB distanced itself from its national rivals by five points in the table and climbed to fourth place.
FC Bayern will remain in success mode in the new year – thanks to a man who is supposed to have had no future in Munich for a long time. Leon Goretzka led the first half of the season as a double goalscorer to 3:2 (2:1) against Bayern’s favorite home opponent VfL Wolfsburg. With the somewhat shaky victory at the end, the Munich team rounded off a perfect nine-point week in the Bundesliga – and remain on course for the championship.
Goretzka first scored with his right foot (20th) and later with his head (62nd). Michael Olise was also successful (39th). The eye-catching Frenchman also curled the free kick precisely onto Goretzka’s forehead to make it 3-1. Another hit from Joshua Kimmich with the head, shoulder and possibly also the upper arm was conceded by the video assistant after a long review (45th + 5th). The Wolfsburg team, who remained winless in their 28th attempt in Munich, put up a fight but were unable to consistently stop the Munich goal express. Mohamed Amoura appeared offensively twice: the Algerian scored to make it 1-1 (25th) and reduce the score to 2-3 (88th).
Kramaric works and scores: Hoffenheim wins the basement duel in Kiel
Star striker Andrej Kramaric’s incendiary speech apparently had an effect at 1899 Hoffenheim. The crisis club won the basement duel at Holstein Kiel 3-1 (2-0) and ended a negative series of nine competitive games without a win.
In the event of another defeat, Hoffenheim could even have fallen back into a direct relegation spot in the Bundesliga. But goals from Adam Hlozek (26th/56th minute) and Kramaric (45th + 1) himself prevented that on Saturday. Ex-Hoffenheim player Andu Kelati only reduced the score to 1:3 in the 84th minute.
The Croatian national player Kramaric raged in an ESPN interview on Wednesday evening after the 0-5 defeat at FC Bayern Munich: “I feel a lot of shit in the club. We invested so much money for nothing.”