Borussia Dortmund moved up to third place in the German Bundesliga on Saturday when they came out on top of Bayer Leverkusen with a thrilling 4-3 victory.
Erling Braut Haaland scored twice and made another goal, while Raphael Guerreiro scored a sublime free-kick as die Schwarzgelben kept pace with the early pace-setters.
The top four in the table all won away games this weekend as Bayern battered Leipzig, Wolfsburg made it four wins from four away to Greuther Hurth and Mainz 05 continued their impressive start to the campaign with a victory in Hoffenheim.
BVB repeatedly came from behind to win this battle of the title challengers as Bayer Leverkusen are left to dream of what might have been. A victory for die Werkself would have lifted them to third place, but they will have to settle for sixth for the time being.
Florian Wirtz gave Leverkusen a ninth-minute lead, slotting home from close range before Haaland thundered home a headed equaliser. Patrik Schick restored Bayer’s lead just before the break, before Julian Brandt levelled again early in the second half when he took a pass from Haaland a smashing the ball high into the roof of the net.
Leverkusen went ahead for a third time when Moussa Diaby scored from the edge of the penalty area but BVB just kept coming back.
First, Guerreiro’s brilliant free-kick levelled the scores again at 3-3; take a look at that one on the Bundesliga 2021 highlights, it’s well worth a watch! Then the momentum finally shifted the way of BVB when Haaland won the game from the penalty spot after Marco Reus had been fouled.
Haaland has had the most shots in the 2021/22 Bundesliga season (22) and is hot on the heels of top scorer Robert Lewandowski with five goals to the Pole’s six.
Wolfsburg mean business
VFL Wolfsburg continued their perfect start, making it four wins from four with a comfortable 2-0 victory away to new boys Greuther Furth. Lukas Nmecha scored an early opener and star striker Wout Weghorst wrapped up the points when he converted an injury-time penalty.
Midfielder Maximilian Arnold said: “It’s better than if we lost four times! We’re enjoying it, but it’s only been four match days.” True enough but Wolfsburg sit proudly at the top of the pile and there’s nothing better than having the points in the bag.
Here at SBOTOP we’ll be covering the start of the 2021/22 Champions League season this week as Wolfsburg take on Ligue 1 side OSC Lille on Tuesday night.
Bayern’s teen sensation is kicking on
In Saturday’s late kick-off Julian Nagelsmann’s FC Bayern took on his old club, RB Leipzig, and came away with a thumping 4-1 win. It was a result which lifts die Bayern up to second place in the table on ten points.
Meanwhile, die Roten Bullen are languishing in the bottom half with one win and three defeats and are in danger of falling out of the race at an early stage.
While the Bavarians’ recent success has been achieved by a group of established world stars, a new name emerged last year when young attacking midfielder Jamal Musiala broke into the team.
Last September, he became Bayern’s youngest league goal scorer of all time at 17 years of age. On Saturday, at the grand old age of 18 he climbed off the bench, late in the game, to take the match away from Red Bull, scoring one goal and making another, as Lewandowski, Leroy Sane and Maxim Choupo-Moting all added to the scoreline. Konrad Laimer bagged the Red Bulls’ consolation.
The Bundesliga 2021 betting odds are right behind die Bayern for a tenth successive title and, on this evidence, they are the team to beat again, while Red Bull boss Jesse Marsch has some serious thinking to do.
Mainz 05 up to 04
After Mainz recovered during the 2020/21 season to finish in a respectable 12th place they have carried on the positive momentum under new head coach Bo Svensson and, after Round Four of the new season, Mainz find themselves in fourth position.
A 2-0 win over TSG Hoffenheim made it three wins from four and a superb start to the new campaign. Though Hoffenheim saw plenty of the ball, Mainz keeper Robin Zentner had a quiet afternoon, with no saves to make as Mainz won the shot count 13 to nine and five to nil on target
Jonathan Burkardt gave Die Nullfunfer an early lead before fellow striker, Marcus Ingvartsen, on loan from Union Berlin, climbed off the bench on 76 minutes and scored immediately. He almost made it three in injury time as Mainz coasted home.
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