Three things we learnt from the Bundesliga Konferenz | OneFootball

The Bundesliga returned after the international break with Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-1 win against Eintracht Frankfurt; now it was time for 10 more teams to get involved.

The teams in action included Borussia Dortmund against Heidenheim, VfB Stuttgart travelling to Freiburg, Mainz versus RB Leipzig, Köln looking to poop Wolfsburg’s 80-year anniversary and Union Berlin against Hoffenheim.

Serhou Guirassy is one of the top five strikers in the world:

Borussia Dortmund saw off 10-man Heidenheim with a 2-0 win. Serhou Guirassy scored his fourth Bundesliga goal of the season in his third game. The 29-year-old is slowly reaching an upper echelon of strikers to have played in the league, as his goal today means he has now scored in his eighth Bundesliga game in a row, which puts him behind only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Robert Lewandowski in terms of non-German players.

Guirassy’s stats over the last calendar year speak for themselves, and it is becoming increasingly harder to argue that the Guinean is not among the top five best strikers in the world right now. The ones who are ahead of him are Harry Kane, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappé, then potentially Alexander Isak when he is fit.

With the form that Guirassy is in this season, he looks like the only player who will be able to go toe to toe with Kane for the Torjägerkanone this season.

SC Freiburg kick-starts their Bundesliga season:

It looked as if Frieburg and Julian Schuster had been diagnosed with a healthy dose of second-season syndrome after losing their opening two games of the season comfortably to both Augsburg and SC Freiburg. The first 80 minutes of the game looked as if this would continue after a tidy backheel from Ermedin Demirovic meant they were 1-0 down.

However, the substitutions that Schuster made swung the game in Freiburg’s favour. Ex-Karlsruher striker, Igor Matanovic, levelled it before Derry Scherhant scored the winner, and Matanovic then converted a penalty to make it 3-1.

A well-deserved win for Freiburg, and they can finally kick-start their Bundesliga campaign.

For Stuttgart, they continue to suffer from teething problems. It has been a slow start for the Swabians with two close wins in the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal, and with the Europa League league phase around the corner, they will need to find their rhythm sooner rather than later.

How good are 1.FC Köln:

Wolfsburg were celebrating their 80th anniversary as a club, and it looked as if they had secured a fairytale win when record appearance holder Maximilian Arnold scored the winner. However, if you want even more narrative, Jakub Kaminski (who is on loan at Köln from Wolfsburg) scored the equaliser in the 104th minute (the game had three lengthy stoppages – rain, pyro, VAR) to maintain Köln’s unbeaten start to the season.

But how good at Effzeh, and how far can they actually go?

From an attacking point of view (via FotMob), Köln are one of the better sides in the league. They are in the top for xG and big chances created. However, they do find themselves in the midtable for important defensive stats.

Köln’s first big test of the season will be against RB Leipzig next weekend, but so far, they already look like a team that will be able to avoid relegation this season.

GGFN | Jack Meenan