15:30 Kickoffs: Freiburg upset Stuttgart while Hoffenheim and Leipzig survive scares

In a battle between two clubs on the opposite sides of Baden-Württemberg, last-season’s league sensations VfB Stuttgart have begun their 2024/25 Bundesliga campaign with an upset loss against SC Freiburg. Sebastian Hoeneß’ Cannstatter traveled south to Freiburg on Saturday afternoon to take on Julian Schuster’s SCF. After taking an early lead, Stuttgart conceded three unanswered goals and might have lost by a much wider margin. The VfB search for additional help at the back now becomes significantly more urgent following a match that laid bare how disorganized Hoeneß’ attempts to cobble together an ad-hoc defense can look. 

Both trainers made two changes to their respective cup sides. Schuster modified the winning team from last week’s Pokal victory by starting Lukas Kübler and Merlin Röhl over Bruno Ogbus and Lucas Höler. Hoeneß also employed two changes to the DFL Supercup XI. Frans Krätzig replaced the injured Anthony Rouault. Deniz Undav also stared over Maximilian Mittelstädt. Krätzig took over for Mittelstädt on the left-hand-side of defense opposite the moved-back Jamie Leweling. Angelo Stiller slid into central defense to complete a 5-4-1 with Undav on the right-wing. 

Matters got off to the perfect start for the Swabians with new summer signing Ermedin Demirovic scoring an acrobatic goal in the 2nd. To their immense credit, the Breisgauer hosts were not dazed. Taking advantage of Stuttgart’s unconventional set-up, Schuster’s men slowly played their way back into the game. Stuttgart still dominated possession and the south Badeners were only able to make small, yet promising, pinpricks on the counter. The equalizer came in the 26th with Kübler slotted the 1-1 home calmly after a failed clearance. Vincenzo Grifo nearly gave Freiburg the lead moments later. 

The opening 45 came to an end with the scoreline still deadlocked. This despite the fact that the Black Forest club had the better chances. VfB keeper Nübel had to be at the top of his game to stop Merlin Röhl in the 33rd. Freiburg concluded the first half with double as many shots as their guests. The reward for all the sold work came nine minutes after the restart. Ritsu Doan netted the 2-1 in a curious fashion. Doan – marked by Krätzig – initially slipped and guided the ball towards goal with his backside. Japanese international still maintained the awareness to toe-in the finish. 

Kübler then completed a scorer’s brace by polishing off a corner in the 61st. Suddenly down 1-3, the 2023/24 Bundesliga runners-up and their coach got desperate. Haphazard attack charges and a wave of substitutions, unsurprisingly enough, merely led to Freiburg gaining more promising chances on the counter. Sallai narrowly missed the 4-1 in 74th. There were a few more half-chances and promising counters before the full-time whistle finally sealed the upset result. The guests will be left to count themselves lucky that Freiburg didn’t score more goals on this day.

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga’s 15:30 kickoffs, there were two other near upsets in Leipzig at the Red Bull Arena and at Sinsheim’s PreZero. Marco Rose’s German Red Bulls were able to able to hang on long enough to secure a 1-0 victory over visiting Bochum. Reduced to ten-men after a Willi Orban red card in the 84th, RB ended up prevailing courtesy of a game-winner from new arrival Antonio Nusa. Hoffenheim survived a late comeback scare from ten-man Kiel and keep hold of a 3-2 sin Andrej Kramaric recorded a hat-trick in TSG season-opener. 

The remaining two concurrent kickoffs ended in draws. In the highly-anticipated “Battle of the Danish Bos”, Union Berlin and FSV Mainz 05 shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw at MEWA Arena. Nadiem Amiri and Laszlo Benes traded goals in the result. SV Werder Bremen also came away from their trip to the WWK Arena with only a single point. There were four goals in Augsburg as Jess Thorup’s Fuggerstädter and Ole Werner’s Hanseaten played to a 2-2 stalemate.