VfB Stuttgart climbed to the summit of the Bundesliga table on Saturday thanks to a 3-1 win over Wolfsburg to make it five league wins on the bounce.
Die Roten finished the 2022/23 campaign in 16th place and only survived thanks to a play-off win over Hamburg. The transformation at the club has been nothing short of remarkable since Sebastien Hoeness arrived as head coach last April and successfully steered Stuttgart to safety.
52,000 fans packed into the MHP Arena to see Stuttgart come from behind to beat a dangerous Wolfsburg as Guinea striker Serhou Guirassy scored a hat-trick to make it 13 for the campaign, and that puts him five goals ahead of Bayern’s Harry Kane in the early dash for the Golden Boot. With just a quarter of the game remaining Guirassy scored his first when he was felled by Cedric Zesiger and climbed to his feet to blast a penalty high and straight down the middle.
After scoring 11 goals in 22 games for Die Roten last season, when he was on loan from Ligue 1 side Rennes, Guirassy had stepped up this campaign and he is bursting with confidence. He collected a through ball from Chris Fuhrich and slotted home on 78 minutes to make it 2-1 and then he completed his hat-trick, five minutes later, with a clinical finish into the bottom right corner.
Next up for Stuttgart, is a trip away to struggling Union Berlin.
Leverkusen reclaim the top spot
Sunday saw a return to the top of the table for Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen who swept aside bottom club Koln with a comfortable 3-0 win, though with 23 shots on the Koln goal and ten on target it could easily have been a few more. With Granit Xhaka in midfield Bayer have some added steel, and he compliments the more creative play of Jonas Hoffman, who set Die Werkself on the way with a cool finish after great work from Florian Wirtz. Jeremie Frimpong doubled the lead from close range before the half time break. Leverkusen continued to dominate and summer signing Victor Boniface, who has started brilliantly since his switch from Union Berlin to Leverkusen, scored his seventh of the campaign when he took a pass from Hoffman and finished with style.
They finished sixth last season but the latest Bundesliga 2023 betting odds make Leverkusen the second favourites to win the 2023/24 title behind FC Bayern.
The challengers to Bayern are gathering
After a tricky run in Bavaria my SBOTOP colleague Jordan reckons Die Bayern won’t be down for long. I’m sure he’s right but the league champions need to find their relentless consistency before too long because there are a number of teams which have put together an impressive set of Bundesliga 2023 results in recent weeks. Stuttgart have five consecutive wins while Leverkusen have now won four from five, alongside two more teams in the leading pack.
BVB made a stuttering start to the campaign but they have begun to gather momentum, coming through a tight game against Wolfsburg before winning well away to TSG Hoffenheim and, on Saturday, Dortmund made it three victories on the bounce with an entertaining 4-2 win over Union Berlin. After Niclas Fulkrug had given Die Scwharzgelben an early lead, goals from Robin Gosens and Leonardo Bonucci handed the Berliners a half time lead. But BVB roared back in the second half with goals from Nico Schlotterbeck, Julian Brandt and the in form Julian Ryerson gave the Yellow Wall plenty to celebrate. Dortmund moved up to 17 points and just two off the summit.
There was a dramatic finish at Werder Bremen where TSG Hoffenheim won a five goal thriller to make it four wins in five, their only defeat being to BVB. Max Beier gave TSG the perfect start when he latched on to a ball from Grischa Promel and fired home; but Werder were quickly level when Romano Schmidt hit a rocket into the top right corner. Hoffenheim went back in the lead before the break when provider Promel turned scorer when he arrowed a low shot into the bottom corner.
In an evenly matched game which went from end to end Werder Bremen thought they’d grabbed a point in injury time when Jens Stage fired one into the top corner, but a minute later Marius Bulter hit a beauty from distance to win all three points.
Hoffenheim went fifth; but may be overtaken by FC Bayern in the late game, a tough assignment at home to SC Freiburg.
The Bavarians need to keep up with a serious pace.
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