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Jeremy Frimpong was one of Leverkusen's match winners in Heidenheim

Photo:

Heiko Becker / REUTERS

Accompanied by violent fan protests, the situation in the Bundesliga remains unchanged after matchday 22: Bayer Leverkusen has maintained its aura of invincibility in Heidenheim. Borussia Dortmund also continued its streak in Wolfsburg in 2024 and remains unbeaten.

The games between Darmstadt 98 and VfB Stuttgart and Mainz 05 against Augsburg were interrupted for a long time following fan protests and are still ongoing.

Bayer Leverkusen also cleared the away hurdle in Heidenheim. The league leaders defeated the strong newcomers 2:1 (1:0) and remained unbeaten in their 32nd competitive game in a row. Bayer has thus set the record that FC Bayern Munich previously had alone. Bayer's lead over Bayern, who only play at VfL Bochum on Sunday, will remain at least five points in any case.

However, Xabi Alonso's team struggled for a long time, and it was only in injury time of the first half that Jeremy Frimpong took advantage of a carelessness in the otherwise attentive Heidenheim defense to make it 1-0. In the second half, the hosts increased the pressure, but there was hardly any real threat to Bayer goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky.

Bayer also had the better chances after the change, including young star Florian Wirtz only hitting the top of the crossbar. In the 81st minute, Amine Adli made it 2-0. Tim Kleindienst's goal (87') came too late. After eight unbeaten games, Heidenheim suffered a defeat for the first time.

Borussia Dortmund remains undefeated in 2024, but only took a point away from VfL Wolfsburg with a 1-1 draw. At 1-0, Niclas Füllkrug gave the guests the lead early on. Yannick Gerhardt equalized to 1-1 after an hour. This game was also affected several times by interruptions after tennis balls were thrown from the fan corner.

The Wolfsburg team, who dropped significantly in the table in the second half of the season, were the more energetic and combative team over the 90 minutes and earned this point. The criticism of coach Niko Kovac, which had become louder and louder, will probably only die down after a win.

BVB showed a disappointing performance despite winning the point. However, the rhythm of the game for both teams was repeatedly disrupted by five interruptions in the game.

The game is not over yet.

The game is still ongoing.

1899 Hoffenheim missed the breakthrough and has been waiting for a win for eight games after the 0-1 (0-0) draw against Union Berlin. Victory would have been possible: the game hadn't even really started yet and Hoffenheim could have already taken the lead. But at the end of a triple chance, Ihlas Bebou only hit the post from a few meters (2nd).

On the other hand, Benedict Hollerbach also shot at the post (18th), Union's Robin Gosens later scored, but Hollerbach, who provided the assist, was previously offside (29th). Then the game sputtered along – and then tennis balls flew again. Referee Robert Hartmann sent both teams to the dressing rooms, and when the game continued after a long break, things got heated on the pitch.

First, Hoffenheim's Stanley Nsoki hit his opponent Volland with his hand in the face during a duel and was shown a yellow-red card (45th + 3rd). Afterwards, Volland also had to leave the field with a yellow-red card after a minor foul on Andrej Kramarić (45th + 6th). A very hard decision.

At the start of the second half, Hoffenheim were the better team without creating any compelling chances. Instead, Union struck out of nowhere in the 84th minute: Substitute Brenden Aaronson scored the victory from around ten meters following an assist from Yorbe Vertessen. Hoffenheim slipped to ninth place, Union climbed to twelfth place.

aha/kjo