Bundesliga on Saturday
Stuttgart fails against promoted team – Werder shocks Union
Updated 12/21/2024 – 5:38 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
VfB Stuttgart wanted to end Christmas in a place in the top third of the table. But the last game of the year ended on a sobering note.
Mistake from the runner-up: VfB Stuttgart lost 0-1 against FC St. Pauli. The newcomer from Hamburg secured an away win that only a few experts had previously expected. But St. Pauli wasn’t the only promoted team to score points. Holstein Kiel dismantled FC Augsburg, won their home game 5-1 and reduced the gap to the relegation place.
With a perfect end to the year, FC St. Pauli surprisingly gained some breathing room in the relegation battle. The newcomer beat Champions League participants VfB Stuttgart 1-0 (1-0) and celebrated their first competitive win against the Swabians at the twelfth attempt. For the hard-working but unimaginative VfB, after four wins in a row, it was an unexpected setback in the fight for re-entry into the premier class.
Johannes Eggestein (21st) scored for the guests and had the 2-0 on their feet, but failed with a penalty kick (53rd) to national goalkeeper Alexander Nübel. Oladapo Afolayan (80th) hit the post on a counterattack.
But that didn’t take revenge for the Paulians, who had lost four of the five previous league games. At the end, their coach Alexander Blessin, a Cannstatt native and former VfB professional, cheered.
Werder Bremen continued their winning streak furiously at the end of the year and are continuing to crawl their way towards the European Cup places. The Green-Whites won 4-1 (3-1) against Union Berlin on Saturday after a strong offensive performance. Marco Grüll scored twice (13th, 17th), Mitchell Weiser (45th) and Jens Stage (87th) scored for Bremen. András Schäfer’s goal (23rd) wasn’t enough for Union.
Werder has now won four competitive games in a row, and coach Ole Werner’s team has picked up ten points from the last four Bundesliga games – and could therefore survive the winter in sixth place in the table. Bo Svensson and his Berliners, on the other hand, are still in crisis and have not won in eight Bundesliga games. The Iron Men only had a long negative streak once: just over a year ago under Urs Fischer there were ten league games without a win in a row.
With an exhilarating goal festival and three goals in seven minutes, Holstein Kiel stopped its negative streak and said goodbye to the winter break with its own Bundesliga record. Thanks to an impressive first half, the newcomer won 5:1 (4:1) against FC Augsburg, but remains in a relegation zone despite the biggest win in the elite league. Kiel recently suffered five defeats in a row.
Before the turn of the year, the spectacle is a glimmer of hope for the club. The KSV now has eight points in the table and has initially reduced the gap to the relegation zone to two points. On Sunday, Kiel’s direct competitors Bochum and Heidenheim will compete against each other. Augsburg is still waiting for its first away win this season.
The early Augsburg goal by Alexis Claude-Maurice (5th minute) equalized Kiel’s Lasse Rosenboom (12th). Kiel then scored three times in seven minutes: Phil Harres scored twice (32nd/35th), the strong Shuto Machino, who prepared two goals, made it 4-1 (39th) – and ensured the final score in added time ( 90.+1).