St. Pauli brings Leverkusen's title dreams to a hold | OneFootball

Bayer Leverkusen have dropped crucial points in the fight for the Bundesliga crown against Bayern Munich: Xabi Alonso's side drew 1-1 against Alexander Blessin's St. Pauli team.

After 30 matchdays in the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, the gap between 1. place Bayern Munich and 2. place Bayer Leverkusen has increased to 8 points - while mathematically still possible, it seems like Xabi Alonso's goal of retaining the Bundesliga Meisterschale is close to impossible now.

St. Pauli were the more aggressive side in the first 20 minutes of the game, even though they were missing their captain Jackson Irvine in this match. But St. Pauli's biggest problem this season, creating many chances and scoring many goals, was also visible in this game.

Leverkusen were able to come back after the surprisingly good start by the hosts and scored the first goal of the game in the 32nd minute: Patrik Schick coverted a cross from Alejandro Grimaldo and scored with his head to bump up his Bundesliga goal tally to now 18 goals.

Schick is the second best goalscorer in the league and “just” 6 goals behind Bayern Munich's Harry Kane with 24 goals - let's see if it can get more exciting in this category over the next few matchdays.

The hosts were not unsettled by going behind and kept up their aggressive style of play. The substitution of Noah Weißhaupt into the game was seemingly the missing piece for die Kiezkicker:

He was the one who brought the final finesse into the hosts gameplay and he even assisted Morgan Guilavogui's goal in the 74th minute - before it got called off for a handball decision.

Shortly after that however, it was Carlo Boukhalfa who made the club from Hamburg go wild: his shot from short distance in the 78th minute counted and was the final blow in an exciting game.

Leverkusen are 8 points behind the leaders Bayern Munich - and St. Pauli are now 8 points ahead of Heidenheim who currently sit on relegation rank 16. While Bayern seem to be the next Bundesliga champions after this result, St. Pauli could have just secured another season of Bundesliga football for themselves!

The final decisions will of course be made in the next few weeks - but this game might have already been the season decider for both Leverkusen and St. Pauli. Let's see if any mircales dare to happen on matchday 31,32,33 and 34!