After Bayern Munich raised the curtain on Bundesliga 2023-24, we could then get to seeing what they will face in the field. Harry Kane’s debut – an assist inside four minutes then a first goal – showed how he will bring the best out of his teammates, but (like a 4-0 win at Werder Bremen) though excellent, were expected.
Everything on Friday night had gone almost exactly to script for the champions and their star signing, but that was never the question occupying Bundesliga-focused minds – the last time Bayern lost to the northerners was a 5-2 home defeat back in September 2008, and the best Werder have mustered since is four draws. It was as straightforward as pressing the demo button on a top-of-the-range keyboard. England’s captain could not have asked for a more forgiving first outing.
So following the inevitable, on Saturday the baton passed to the challengers to show what they were made of. After last week’s Super Cup demolition of Bayern, RB Leipzig pushed themselves firmly into that bracket, dazzling with a collective poise that was astonishing given a summer which saw multiple personnel changes. Here, away to Leverkusen on the opening afternoon, was an opportunity to make a statement of intent against a team that will probably be occupying the same sort of top-four space as them.
Things, however, didn’t quite go to plan. From a neutral perspective this was the Bundesliga at its erratic best, with Xabi Alonso’s side getting the better of a five-goal thriller (even if it really should have been a draw, with Leipzig’s excellent new centre-forward Loïs Openda – who had already scored – improbably hitting the post from point-blank range). To sell us a genuine challenger to Bayern? Not so effective.
Alonso’s Leverkusen are not to be underestimated; they were, along with Borussia Dortmund, the bright sparks of the second half of last season, rising from relegation trouble to flirt with the top four before being Mourinho-ed out in the Europa League semi-finals. They must, though, make do without the outstanding Moussa Diaby after his move to Aston Villa, but the scintillating performance of Florian Wirtz – now decked out in the No 10 shirt – underlined that they will be must-watch, and can make the the Champions League.
For Leipzig, there will be improvements. Josko Gvardiol’s nominal replacement Castello Lukeba, signed from Lyon, played the last half-hour – a thankless task with his team chasing the game – and looked like a tourist being blown down a Chicago street when handed his first taste of Bundesliga pace, getting booked for taking down Exequiel Palacios in the midst of it. Meanwhile highly rated striker Benjamin Sesko and attacking midfielder Christoph Baumgartner didn’t play. They all have pedigree and, when up to speed, will add something. This was a reminder, though, that Marco Rose is bedding in a new team.
Dortmund are in a slightly different position. They lost Jude Bellingham but seem to have recruited well, and their second half of last season was formidable. This first game – first home game – of the new Bundesliga season, on Saturday teatime against Köln, was a particular type of hurdle, though. For Edin Terzic and his players it was about getting past the emotional landslide of the last day of last season where, at fortress Signal Iduna Park, they improbably let slip a first league championship since 2012.
Everything must have reminded them of that heartbreak. Die Gelbe Wand – the yellow wall – which is their strength, which they had to face in the most intense of disappointments, as Terzic and the iconic Marco Reus both did, in tears; even the new kit, with its silhouette of their home on the front and which they premiered on that fateful final day, will always be the one they wore while losing the Bundesliga title.
Köln were smart and enterprising too, just as party-spoilers Mainz had been three months ago, well prepared by their canny coach Steffen Baumgart and outnumbering BVB in midfield. With the hosts lacking any real press or intensity, it was Baumgart’s men who largely controlled the game, yet it was Dortmund who got it done, with substitute Felix Nmecha’s flick tucked away at the back post by Donyell Malen for an unlikely winner with time running out.
The Dutchman was about to be replaced with Jamie Bynoe-Gittens when Julian Ryerson signalled he couldn’t continue, so Thorgan Hazard was sent on instead and Malen remained, to lethal effect. “I’m sorry for Jamie,” Terzic told Sky, “but stories like this are always written in football.” An undeserved win, after what new skipper Emre Can called a “sluggish” performance, might be exactly what BVB needed to start getting last season out of their systems: to know that even below their best, they can do the necessary.
Conversely, we always knew what Bayern and Kane could do together. But with questions still lingering over the champions in other areas, we really need to know whether anyone will be prepared enough to sniff out any weaknesses. That we will see in the coming weeks.
Talking points
• Bellingham, meanwhile, is flourishing in his new life in Madrid, and some saw his weekend comment that he is “10 times better than last season” as a criticism of his former club – particularly in the light of Bild’s report that some in the Dortmund dressing room were pleased to see the back of him. “I don’t see it as a criticism,” sporting director Sebastian Kehl replied, emphasising he is still in regular contact with the England midfielder.
• The remaining member of last season’s top four – about whom nobody is talking in terms of a title challenge – is Union Berlin. They have had arguably the most exciting summer of those clubs, making big-name signings like Robin Gosens and Kevin Volland and selling out their Champions League matches in the cavernous Olympiastadion inside a day. Yet they showed in Sunday’s flattering 4-1 win over Mainz – Ludovic Ajorque missed two penalties for the visitors, a feat never previously managed in the Bundesliga – that they still have that link with their humble roots. Kevin Behrens, a 32-year-old journeyman of a centre-forward who had hadn’t played top-flight football before joining on a free in 2021, stood out above the star signings by scoring a hat-trick of imperious headers – and then, by cycling home afterwards. New dimension, same old Union.
Bundeslia results
Werder Bremen 0-4 Bayern Munich, Wolfsburg 2-0 Heidenheim, Hoffenheim 1-2 Freiburg, Augsburg 4-4 Borussia Mönchengladbach, Vfb Suttgart 5-0 VfL Bochum, Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund 1-0 Köln, Union Berlin 4-1 Mainz, Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 Darmstadt
• On the west side of Berlin, relegated Hertha are already bottom of the nascent Bundesliga 2. Three games, three defeats, no points, no goals. Yikes.
• Other highlights included Augsburg’s extraordinary 4-4 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach (3-1 down then 4-3 up before Gladbach’s Tomas Cvancara scored a last-gasp penalty, his second in a storming debut) but Stuttgart are first-day top despite losing the totemic Wataru Endo. Thomas Letsch, the coach of Saturday’s opponents Bochum, even suggested pre-match that his side’s ideas of how VfB would line up were completely skewed by the exit of such “a central and important building block”. It certainly looked like the visitors were more unbalanced by no Endo than Stuttgart were, with the home side running out 5-0 winners. Serhou Guirassy – looking sharper than sharp – and Silas both scored twice.
