The Bundesliga big guns set the tone for the season on the opening weekend with wins in all manners, FC Bayern and Bayer Leverkusen beat Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach by 3-2, while Borussia Dortmund and Red Bull Leipzig also picked up three points.
Vincent Kompany’s first match in charge of FC Bayern went to plan in the first half but the second was chaotic. When Harry Kane burst through early on he was denied by a smart save from keeper Kamil Grabara and the new Wolfsburg stopper was called into action when Joshua Kimmich met a cross from Bayern new boy Michael Olise. But Bayern got their deserved lead when Jamal Musiala prodded home from close range on 19 minutes thanks to a great run and pull back from Sacha Boey.
Bayern usually enjoy meeting Wolfsburg and, despite one or two hairy moments at the back as they played out of defence, the Bavarians pretty much bossed the first half, with eight shots to one and five to none on target. But the second half started in explosive fashion when Tiago Tomas burst through and, when Boey tripped him, the referee had an easy decision to point to the penalty spot. Boey received a yellow card; and Lovro Majer stepped up and calmly slotted the ball home, low into the bottom right corner.
The home fans suddenly came alive and the Wolves sniffed blood and were agonizingly close to doubling their lead when Majer crashed a shot against the upright. Bayern were rocking and soon enough they were behind when Wolfsburg broke again, Patrick Wimmer squared for Majer and he slotted home to turn the game on its head.
Kompany reacted by bringing on Thomas Muller to replace Boey and he had an immediate impact, putting pressure on Jakub Kaminski and the Wolfsburg defender put through his own net. Bayern went for the winner and Kaminski made a brilliant block to deny Kane, but the Wolves were finally undone when Kane fed Serge Gnabry and he fired in his cross shot off the post.
Wolfsburg came again and Mattias Svenberg thought he’d leveled but his first time effort flew inches wide. The early season Bundesliga 2024 betting odds have installed the Bavarians as favourites and they started with a much needed win…but it was far from comfortable for their new head coach.
Champions leave it late
A 101st minute winner courtesy of Florian Wirtz gave Bayer Leverkusen three points from a five goal thriller in Friday’s curtain-raiser away to Borussia Monchengladbach. It was a humdinger of a game with Die Werkself winning the shot counts by 25 to 14 and ten to seven on target and there was no doubting Leverkusen’s attacking intentions in their title defence. Head coach Xabi Alonso has asked for more solidity and aggression in future matches and he has just the man to lead that, in midfield enforcer Granit Xhaka who opened the scoring against Die Fohlen with a stunning strike. When Wirtz doubled the lead the champions were coasting at half time, but the second period saw the hosts roar back with goals from Nico Elvedi and new boy Tim Kleindienst.
When Monchengladbach’s Ko Itakura fouled Amine Adli deep into stoppage time, Wirtz stepped up, and when his spot kick was saved he hammered in the rebound to make it 3-2 and grab a first win for the champions; and Wirtz became the fifth player to score in successive opening games for Leverkusen. The title defence is up and running.
Gittens announces his arrival
In one of our SBOTOP featured matches, 20 year old winger Jamie Gittens climbed off the bench to score a brace and give Borussia Dortmund an impressive 2-0 home win against Eintracht Frankfurt, who finished sixth last season. Dortmund finished a place higher last term and, after 72 minutes of end to end football, the hosts finally went ahead when Gittens broke the deadlock with a superb strike into the top corner. The Eagles came close to an equalizer but Gregor Kobel, arguably the best keeper in the Bundesliga, kept them out and when Gittens scored again the roof came off the Signal Iduna Stadium.
Kobel admitted it wasn’t a comfortable night for Die Schwarzgelben, saying: “We lost a few balls, even though we had a lot of possession. It wasn’t a top performance. There were a lot of good things we can build on, but also some things we need to work on.”
New head coach Nuri Sahin will be pleased with his first night’s work in Dortmund and his team recorded an opening day win for the tenth season in succession. BVB will face Werder Bremen next Saturday, while Frankfurt will hope to get off the mark when they host TSG Hoffenheim, who started with a 3-2 win over Holstein Kiel.
In other Bundesliga 2024 results Red Bull Leipzig picked up a hard earned win over Bochum thanks to a smart finish from Antonio Nusa after a fast break; but they will be without centre back Willi Orban next week after he picked up a straight red card for an agricultural challenge on Myron Boadu.
But last season’s surprise package Stuttgart fell to a 3-1 defeat to SC Freiburg despite taking an early lead through Ermedin Demerovic. A brace from Lukas Kubler, the first a beauty, and a strike from Ritsu Doan made it a comfortable win for the hosts.
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