Bayern München eased past Werder Bremen 4–0 with a familiar cocktail of aggressive rest-defence and wave-after-wave pressure. Wolfsburg answered in kind, routing Essen 8–0 to stay stride-for-stride at the top, while Freiburg won at Union and the Köln–Leverkusen derby was abandoned at 1–0 after a floodlight failure.
Bayern’s baseline is smothering
If you’re searching for the constant in a league of weekly curveballs, it’s Bayern’s defensive baseline. José Barcala’s side strangled Werder’s first pass out with a high, compact 4-3-3 press: wingers jumped to full-backs, the nine screened the pivot, and the eights locked onto second balls. That structure did two things: it kept the ball in Munich’s half-spaces, and it shortened the field for quick, pre-rehearsed combinations after regains.
The opening goal distilled the idea. Bayern win a midfield duel, immediately find the nearest third player, and Arianna Caruso arrives from the blindside to finish. Minutes later Momoko Tanikawa doubles the lead—again, after a regain—because Bayern’s rest-defence (full-backs narrow, six anchored) lets the front line gamble. After the interval, Linda Dallmann comes on to accelerate the tempo between the lines and Lea Schüller completes the scoring. The margins felt routine because the behaviours were repeatable: counterpress on contact, play forward on the first clean touch, flood the box with the weak-side winger arriving late.
Numbers flatter the idea. Werder created almost nothing centrally because Bayern’s spacing left no pocket for the first receiver to breathe; any rare escape met an immediate recovery run from the nearest eight. The clean sheet, again, looked like habit rather than effort. That’s the smothering baseline: even when rotations or injuries force tweaks, the principles don’t blink.
Title race counterpunch: Wolfsburg’s wing factory keeps the pace
Wolfsburg’s 8–0 at Essen read like a sprint session. They pressed front-foot, broke wide, and attacked the six-yard line in waves. The pattern: early ball into the channel, winger drives to the byline, two in the box, one at the cut-back spot. It’s not subtle—it’s devastating when the timing sings. The right side in particular overloaded relentlessly, with the weak-side forward crashing the far post as a rule, not a hunch. The outcome was a goal avalanche and a healthy bump to goal difference that matters in a neck-and-neck table.
Player of the Week
Kessya Bussy (VfL Wolfsburg)
Bussy’s game at Essen was a blueprint in itself: depth, details, and decisiveness. She first hurt the back line with diagonal depth—checking the centre-back’s shoulder, then spinning into space to score early. After that, her value multiplied in the tiny choices: a first-time layoff that let a midfielder shoot; a disguised inside-to-outside run that dragged a full-back to free the overlap; the constant far-post sprint that makes every cross a live ball. When Wolfsburg pressed, Bussy triggered it from the front, curving her approach to shut the lane inside and funnel play to the trap. Two goals headline the day, but it was the repetition of good habits—always available on the release line, always the second runner—that turned a big win into a title-race statement.
All of the other results
- Eintracht Frankfurt 3–1 Carl Zeiss Jena — Two penalties from Elisa Senß plus an Ilestedt header flip a tight game after the break; Eintracht keep top-four pace.
- Union Berlin 0–3 SC Freiburg — Maj Schneider and Luca-Emily Birkholz strike early; a mature away performance in a big venue keeps Freiburg in the European pack.
- 1. FC Nürnberg 1–1 RB Leipzig — Dudek’s early strike cancelled by Lein’s equaliser; both sides leave chances (and a table climb) on the table.
- Hamburger SV 1–4 TSG Hoffenheim — Melissa Kössler bookends a confident away win; TSG steady after a patchy September.
- 1. FC Köln vs Bayer Leverkusen — abandoned (Köln led 1–0 after 26 seconds) due to floodlight failure; rescheduling guidance pending from the league.
Table impact & what’s next
Wolfsburg finish the round top on goal difference over Bayern—both unbeaten, both on 13 points—after the eight-goal swing in Essen. Freiburg sit in the European conversation thanks to a clean away three-nil; Frankfurt’s recovery from their early wobble keeps them within touching distance. The Köln–Leverkusen abandonment hangs over the mid-table picture, since a replayed (or resumed) derby will shift points and goal difference when it lands on the calendar.
The next beat is a character test. Bayern’s baseline travels into a tougher October with European rotation to juggle; Wolfsburg’s wide-lane production will be probed by opponents who refuse to defend the box passively. If both pass those exams, the title race tightens into the winter break with goal difference—and the discipline of habits—looming large.