Bayer Leverkusen won the chasing duel in Leipzig 3:1 in the last Bundesliga round before the winter break and are now third in the table.
20.12.2025, 17:43
20.12.2025, 20:43
SDA
After a weak start to the football year and the early dismissal of Erik ten Hag as coach, Leverkusen still managed a respectable first part of the season under former Danish national coach Kasper Hjulmand. With a deficit of at least nine points to leaders Bayern Munich, it will hardly be enough for the second league title in the club's history, but the team, which was heavily rebuilt at the start of the season, is well on course for a place in the Champions League.
In Leipzig, the two strikers Martin Terrier and Patrik Schick scored in the last five minutes of the first half to bring the score from 0:1 to 2:1. The Austrian Xaver Schlager had given the visitors the lead. The 3:1 in stoppage time was scored by 18-year-old Montrell Culbreath, who needed 20 minutes to score for the first time on his Bundesliga debut.
Pejcinovic with a treble
In the other Saturday game with more than two goals, SC Freiburg won 4:3 in Wolfsburg with Johan Manzambi. The 20-year-old from Geneva initiated the 3:3 in the 71st minute with a long throw-in, which the Dutchman Jenson Seelt scored with an own goal. The 4:3 was scored seven minutes later by Derry Scherhant, who was set up by Manzambi.
German U21 international Dzenan Pejcinovic had scored three times for Wolfsburg before Freiburg's double strike. The substitute striker for ex-Luganese Mohamed Amoura, who was taking part in the Africa Cup, scored his first ever goals in the Bundesliga.
The two Champions League contenders VfB Stuttgart and TSG Hoffenheim drew 0-0 in the Baden-Württemberg duel, as did FC Augsburg and Werder Bremen.
FC Köln lost 1:1 to FC Union Berlin thanks to a late goal, while Bundesliga returnees Hamburger SV and Eintracht Frankfurt drew 1:1.
