Bundesliga: Hoffenheim defeats Leipzig, Frankfurt now second

The good news: There were some exciting games today. The bad news: FC Bayern are once again ahead of their pursuers by six points.

After Bayern confidently scored three goals and three points against Augsburg on Friday, their pursuers RB Leipzig had a hard time. The club gave up the lead three times. In the end it was 4:3 for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim – the perfect debut for the new head coach Christian Ilzer.

Five days after the first training session with Ilzer, Hoffenheim started full of attack and enthusiasm. Pellegrino Matarazzo’s successor had called up four strikers.

But the guests from Leipzig scored the first goal: With a cross from Nusa, Orban sneaked past Stanley Nsoki and brought the ball over the line to make it 1-0. This was the start of four furious minutes. The equalizer by Hlozek, who beat Orban, put a big smile on Ilzer’s face. But that quickly froze again: Nusa slammed the leather into the goal to make it 2-1 for Leipzig after a pass from Loïs Openda.

The injury-plagued Leipzig team – without Xavi Simons, Yussuf Poulsen, Xaver Schlager and David Raum, among others – then got off to a bitter start in the second half. The 19-year-old Bishop curled a free kick from the edge of the penalty area with his left foot past goalkeeper Peter Gulasci to equalize again.

But the people of Leipzig didn’t let that deter them either. However, when they took the lead again, they were lucky that Nsoki directed the ball into his own goal – the preparatory work once again came from Nusa.

But the third lead didn’t last either: Hlozek equalized from 19 meters and Bruun Larsen then made it 4:3 for TSG.

In the evening game, Eintracht Frankfurt seized the opportunity and moved past Leipzig into second place with a win against Werder Bremen. The Hessians won 1-0 (1-0) at home. Mario Götze scored the decisive goal in the 45th minute. And thus refined the 100th competitive game for Eintracht.

“I’m expecting a goal from him,” Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller said about Götze before the game – although he didn’t mean it entirely seriously. Götze still complied with his coach’s demands and gave Toppmöller the right gift for his 44th birthday with the goal. It was the fifth competitive win in a row for Frankfurt. Werder, on the other hand, remains in the middle of the league.

In the 4-0 (2-0) win against SC Freiburg, Borussia Dortmund won their sixth home game – and thus remains a power at least at home in the Bundesliga. Maximilian Beier (7th minute), Felix Nmecha (40th), Julian Brandt (66th) and Jamie Gittens (77th) scored the goals for Borussia, who had to do without the ill Serhou Guirassy for a short time.

The Freiburg team are on par in the table, but there was hardly any sign of that in the game. To make matters worse, midfielder Patrick Osterhage saw yellow-red (63rd) for repeated foul play – and shortly before the end Junior Adamu (90th+3) also saw red. This meant that the Breisgauers fell behind BVB in the table.

For BVB, however, the sporting situation is somewhat relaxed again before the general meeting on Sunday.

Champions Bayer Leverkusen have prevented another setback in the Bundesliga. Xabi Alonso’s team fell 2-0 behind early on against Heidenheim thanks to goals from Niklas Dorsch (10th minute) and Mathias Honsak (21st). It was important for Leverkusen that they were able to equalize before the break, thanks to the double strike from Palacios (30th) and Patrik Schick (32nd).

Schick in particular showed good form: after the break he scored twice more (52nd/71st). Granit Xhaka then scored the final point (82′). Nevertheless: Leverkusen’s gap to league leaders FC Bayern is already nine points.

The heavily weakened runner-up VfB Stuttgart prevailed 2-0 (0-0) against bottom-placed VfL Bochum. The goals were scored by Chris Führich (53rd) and substitute Justin Diehl (78th).

In the fifth game of the afternoon, VfL Wolfsburg won 1-0 (0-0) at home against Union Berlin in an overall weak game. Baku secured Wolfsburg’s first home win of the season with its goal in the 71st minute.

Note: This post has been updated.