Substitute Victor Boniface scored a last-gasp goal to secure the Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen a dramatic 4-3 win over Wolfsburg on Sunday.
Renowned forward Victor Boniface scored a header deep in the stoppage time to snatch a last-gasp 4-3 victory for last season’s Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen against Wolfsburg on Sunday while Borussia Dortmund who own the German league’s current record of most consecutive wins and draws were sunk without trial by a rampant Stuttgart taking five goals to dismiss them in the process. For a long time, it was almost a flip-flop battle; from the 48th minute, both Leverkusen and Wolfsburg were tied at 3-3. Wolfsburg was then pulled down to 10 men in the last ten minutes when Yannick Gerhardt left a nasty chop on Jeremie Frimpong’s calf. Boniface, who was introduced as a substitute with 22 minutes to go, received the ball and spun in the center of the park to fire home and give the German champions yet another last-gasp victory before the team clashes with Bayern Munich next week.
Leverkusen midfielder Granit Xhaka was not happy with the victory noting that it was “a wake-up call for everyone – no one can be happy with the performance of today.”
She continued, We are not possible to proceed with such performances any longer. We can't defend so naively. Yes, we scored four goals, but to do that every weekend—inconceivable!
Leverkusen’s coach Xabi Alonso started this match with all the changes from the side that defeated Feyenoord 4-0 in the Champions League on Thursday and gave Nordi Mukiele his first start for the club.
But for Mukiele, who arrived at the club on loan from French champions PSG, the start could not have been worse when he let the ball in off his thigh to give a fifth-minute own goal.
Leverkusen equalised shortly after through a player of the night, Florian Wirtz who had scored a brace on his Champions League debut on Thursday.
Jonathan Tah gave the hosts the lead from a corner after thirty-two minutes. However, the celebration in Leverkusen did not last long because Wolfsburg’s Sebastiaan Bornauw leveled for his side five minutes later by outjumping Mukiele to head a goal from a close range.
Mattias Svanberg beat the goalkeeper from a distance after a counter for Wolfsburg and then, Leverkusen came back on 48 minutes with an equalizer by Piero Hincapie.
With Leverkusen clinching the Bundesliga for the first time last season without a loss they duly collected only 12 points this time round and they seemed to be on course for another reversal after a 1-0 home defeat by RB Leipzig.
But Boniface had other things in mind and scored a decisive free-kick in the third minute of the stoppage time to ensure that Leverkusen was only three points behind league champions Bayern, whose we knew they would meet next in the tournament.
RB Leipzig once again were unable to find the back of the net as they played out a 0-0 draw with newly-promoted St Pauli in the Sunday’s late kick-off.
The first half was again dominated by St Pauli, who created several scoring opportunities but despite that were unable to breach the defense of Leipzig’s goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi.
The latter nearly lost the match to Leipzig who performed much better in the second half, but the hosts left the field with their first point scored this season.
Stuttgart fly high, Dortmund величавствует
Following the loss by 3-1 to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final second leg match, Stuttgart thrashed a disappointing Dortmund at home with Deniz Undav netting two goals and other goals coming from Ermedin Demirovic, Enzo Millor and El Bilal Toure.
Dortmund had plundered last season’s Bundesliga entertainers Stuttgart during the summer, recruiting club captain Anton and Guirassy, who netted 28 goals in 28 league fixtures.
European Soccer in June, Early season grenades, and Champions League finalist again, Dortmund had not had a defeat this season But they were 2-0 down in the first 21 minutes.
Undav came to a break just four minutes but he joined in on the break and Demirovic -- Guirassy’s replacement up front) headed in a second on the 21-minute.
Millot, similar to Undav, paid a permanent transfer from Dender to Stuttgart in the summer, and scored from a corner to give Stuttgart the lead.
Guirassy tried to console his team with a goal that was scored with fifteen minutes to go but the match ended with Bilal Toure and Undav scoring in the last few minutes giving the team Stuttgart the victory.
He said: “We played a reaction to the Real Madrid match and I am happy,” Undav told DAZN.
Dortmund’s Nuri Sahin, who was given the boot for the first time as the team’s coach, congratulated Stuttgart for its victory saying, “It was deserved from the start to end of the match,” before promising a different performance when they host Bochum on Friday.
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