Leverkusen End Freiburg's Perfect Start as Bayern Snatch Top Spot: Bundesliga Talking Points

Bayern Munich ended the weekend on top of the Bundesliga — ahead of Borussia Dortmund courtesy of an already vastly superior goal difference — thanks to previous leaders Freiburg's first loss of the season, on Sunday afternoon at Bayer Leverkusen.

Julian Schuster's side had taken an early lead at the BayArena, with the in-form Derry Scherhant concluding a flowing team move, but Leverkusen hit back in arguably their first proper test at home. The brilliant Ibrahim Maza quickly equalised and then laid on the second-half winner for Patrick Schick — who has now scored in each of the opening six games of the season — with a sublime assist.

Maza explained to DAZN how his escape from a clutch of Freiburg defenders was straight out of his Berlin childhood. “Just playing in the cage, just improvising and going for it,” he said.

Füllkrug drags Werder back again

Level with Schick at the top of the scoring charts is Niclas Füllkrug, who scored for a fifth game in a row as his brace brought Werder Bremen back from 2-0 down to draw with Paderborn — the third straight game in which Werder have recovered from a two-goal deficit to take a point or more.

Daniel Thioune spoke afterwards about how the (maybe soon-to-be-again?) Germany striker is raising the standards of those around him, including the coach himself. “Niclas expects a lot from a coach,” he said. “It's not just what he does on the pitch, but also what happens in the locker room. Niclas is never too proud to go the extra mile.”

Dortmund stall, Stuttgart sink

Dortmund's tired performance in a goalless draw with Union Berlin in the capital was a second straight scoreless game, but their fellow Champions League participants Stuttgart are in a worse state, glued into the bottom six by a defeat in Hamburg in which they missed a raft of chances.

“We're not a top team right now,” bemoaned Deniz Undav.

Bundesliga results

Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 Cologne; Werder Bremen 2-2 Paderborn; Union Berlin 0-0 Dortmund; Schalke 0-1 Mainz; Hamburg 1-0 Stuttgart; Elversberg 4-3 Augsburg; Bayern 6-1 RB Leipzig; Leverkusen 2-1 Freiburg; M'gladbach 1-2 Hoffenheim.

How the table stands