The winners & losers of Bundesliga Matchday 27

The winners

Bayer Leverkusen

The poor start to the season that led to the firing of Gerardo Seoane may have been a blessing in disguise for Bayer Leverkusen. The appointment of Xabi Alonso has seen the Werkself steadily progress- to the point that Saturday’s 3-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt saw them leapfrog the Adler in the Bundesliga table into the top six.

First half goals from Amine Adli and Moussa Diaby put the hosts in control only for Djibril Sow to make it interesting when he pulled a goal back midway through the second half. An injury time goal from Sardar Azmoun confirmed the win, which takes Leverkusen’s run extend to seven consecutive wins across all competitions.

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Youssoufa Moukoko

It’s amazing to think that this was Moukoko’s 50th appearance for Borussia Dortmund. At the ripe old age of just 18 years and 139 days he beat the previous record held by Florian Wirtz as the youngest player to reach fifty topflight matches. To put the icing on the cake the BVB striker his hit the winning goal in the Schwarzgelben’s hard-fought win over Union Berlin that keeps their title dreams alive.

Köln

The Geißböcke’s 3-1 win away at Augsburg was a huge relief bringing to an end a poor run of games that had seen Steffen Baumgart’s side go six Bundesliga games without a win and scoring just once in that run. Midfielders Ellyes Skhiri and Eric Martel put them 2-0 up in the fist 45 minutes and despite a reply from Ruben Vargas, a third goal from Linton Maina saw them clinch an important three points.

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Niclas Füllkrug

Germany’s new number one striker added to his 15 goals this season as he looks to inherit the Bundesliga Torschutzenkanone from Robert Lewandowski. Werder Bremen looked to be on course for another defeat when Nelson Weiper scored in the 93rd minute to put Mainz 2-1 ahead.

Lücke’ however wasn’t about to give up and rescued a late, late point for Werder in the 95th minute as he fired the ball past Robin Zentner with his outside instep into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Nathan Ngoumou

With Jonas Hoffmann not available from the start against Wolfsburg, Fohlen coach Daniel Farke handed Nathan Ngoumou his fourth start of the season and the 23-year-old repaid the faith with his first career Bundesliga goal.

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Having tried an ambitious shot minutes earlier, the Frenchman was fed by Lars Stindl and Alassane Plea after the visitors gave the ball away. He kept his cool to curl in a left-foot shot into the far corner to beat the normally unbeatable Koen Casteels.

VfB Stuttgart

New Stuttgart coach coach Sebastian Hoeneβ followed the midweek debut win in the DFB Pokal with a potentially vital first Bundesliga win at Bochum. The Swabians away record has been horrible this season and these three points saw them win on the road for the first time since December 2021. The win also sees Stuttgart off the bottom of the table and at least offers a glimmer of survival hope going forward.

The losers

Hertha Berlin

Another week goes by and Hertha Berlin just cannot extricate themselves from the bottom two in the table. A seventh away win over Hertha saw RB Leipzig make a good week into a very good week following their own DFB Pokal win over Dortmund.

Next weekend sees Hertha face a massive relegation six-pointer against Schalke. If they are still in the bottom two this time next week, then you’d have to say the writing is on the wall for Sandro Schwarz’s side.

Joshua Kimmich

Bayern’s revenge win over Freiburg saw them maintain top spot in the Bundesliga table with their two-point lead over Borussia Dortmund maintained thanks to Mathijs de Ligt’s goal.

The potentially vital three points were somewhat overshadowed by the unsavoury scenes after the final whistle instigated by Joshua Kimmich celebrating in a provocative manner in front of the Freiburg fans. The Bayern captain was booked along with Lucas Höler after a brawl ensued and he had to be escorted from the pitch.

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Kimmich later admitted that emotions had got the better of him. “There were a lot of emotions, we lost a lot. It was a very important victory for us. The cup was deep. I let myself be carried away, that you don’t have to do it. You can look at it that way, it was unsportsmanlike.”

Eintracht Frankfurt

A sixth Bundesliga match without a win has seen the Adler drop out of the top six and puts real pressure on Oliver Glasner’s side going into the final weeks of the season.

Their abysmal away record at the Bay Arena now extends to eight consecutive defeats and despite the midweek Pokal win, the pessimism at the Main club persists. Winning the Europa League last season and achieving a long-awaited Champions League return were seen as the start of good times at Eintracht. That is in danger of turning into a deep disappointment if a turnaround in fortunes is not quickly forthcoming.

Schalke

VfB Stuttgart’s win at Bochum combined with the Königsblauen’s 2-0 loss at Hoffenheim sees Thomas Reis’ team slide back to the bottom of the table. An own-goal from Alex Kral and a retaken penalty from Ihlas Bebou made it three wins from three from the Sinsheimer and returned Schalke to the foot of the Bundesliga table. Next Friday’s clash with 17th place Hertha Berlin at the Veltins Arena is going to be huge with the loser facing the very real prospect of relegation.

About Mathew Burt 1058 Articles
Former writer at Goal.com and JustFootball, I've been doing my thing for Bundesliga Fanatic since 2015. A long-suffering Werder Bremen fan and disciple of the Germanic holy trinity...Bier. Wurst und Fußball