{"id":403139,"date":"2026-01-12T14:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403139\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T14:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:57:08","slug":"super-stuttgart-sweep-leverkusen-aside-with-in-demand-leweling-to-the-fore-bundesliga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403139\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Stuttgart sweep Leverkusen aside with in-demand Leweling to the fore | Bundesliga"},"content":{"rendered":"

If ever there was a weekend to show up on your best form, then this was it. Stuttgart travelled to Bayer Leverkusen<\/a> for Saturday night\u2019s Topspiel not just facing a team with whom they have had a healthy sporting rivalry with over recent years, but with an audience to perform to. Starting with an XI containing seven current national team players they were \u2013 of course \u2013 under the gaze of Rudi V\u00f6ller, who served Leverkusen as player and sporting director over two spells amounting to almost 25 years and, though now the sporting director of the DFB, still lives locally and is a frequent visitor to the BayArena.<\/p>\n

So if he enjoyed this early-year shockwave to the Bundesliga\u2019s established order, it would have been in a professional rather than a personal capacity. Games between these two have tended to be among the highlights of recent Bundesliga<\/a> seasons; intriguing, edge-of-the-seat, push-pull affairs between a team that took the express elevator to the very top under Xabi Alonso and one which never blinked for a second when faced by them, emboldened by an inspiring coach of their own in Sebastian Hoeness. \u201cEven in their top year two years ago when Leverkusen dominated everyone, Stuttgart were the only team that played on equal terms in both games,\u201d noted V\u00f6ller as a Sunday guest on Sport1\u2019s celebrated Doppelpass,<\/p>\n

\u201cThat,\u201d as Kicker underlined, \u201cwas certainly not the case on Saturday.\u201d The visitors made mincemeat of their hosts. Propelled by two goals from the in-form \u2013 and in-demand \u2013 Jamie Leweling, Stuttgart<\/a> held a barely believable 4-0 lead at the interval. Kasper Hjulmand, a beacon of calm leadership since his September arrival, appeared lost for words. \u201cI don\u2019t have a decent explanation for what happened,\u201d he said, flummoxed by a one-sided first half.<\/p>\n

Kasper Hjulmand tries to organise his side during the game against Stuttgart. Photograph: Ralf Ibing\/firo sportphoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Granted, Leverkusen had absentees between players at the Africa Cup of Nations and Patrik Schick\u2019s late injury pullout, but excuses are not in their nature, ever since the days of Alonso. They have embodied the modern-day cliche of next man up, but by means of deed rather than word. Yet this was a Stuttgart that by any measure would have been difficult to stop for pretty much any opponent. \u201cThe first 20 or 25 minutes were exceptional,\u201d enthused V\u00f6ller. \u201cI\u2019ve rarely seen a team play like that in Leverkusen in recent years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite having been competitive against very good Leverkusen sides for a while, Stuttgart must have felt they were due. Despite the duels of some of those recent matches it was not always shown in results, having not beaten them since 2018 and Hoeness personally having never beaten Leverkusen in 11 previous attempts, including games with his previous club Hoffenheim. Now this most emphatic of wins has taken them level on points with the 2024 champions, and it has vastly shrunk the gulf in goal difference (which went from 10 in Leverkusen\u2019s favour to just four over the course of this game).<\/p>\n

It was, though, as so often under Hoeness, the style and the swagger that impressed. Deniz Undav\u2019s return to his best has seen that rewarded. His goal \u2013 the fourth, the salt in the Leverkusen wound that followed seconds after Leweling\u2019s second \u2013 was his 10th in his last 11 matches, with his pair of assists taking his total in that same period to five. Yet if plenty of other prospective candidates for summer in Wake Forest with Die Mannschaft might have caught V\u00f6ller\u2019s eye, including Angelo Stiller, Chris F\u00fchrich and even goalkeeper Alexander N\u00fcbel snuffing out any suspicion of a comeback, it was Leweling who shone brightest.<\/p>\n

Stuttgart\u2019s Jamie Leweling runs at Jarell Quansah. Photograph: Lukas Schulze\/Bundesliga Collection\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old\u2019s dynamism, versatility and ability to pop up from any number of deep-lying and wide positions in the same game to threaten opponents really showed up here. Undav is excellent but not the only attacking threat of a World Cup hopeful at Hoeness\u2019 disposal. Leweling\u2019s goals were an accurate bite-size summation of his talent, drifting late into the box to finish Undav\u2019s cute pass for the first, then stepping inside to lash home a shot from outside the area and all but kill the game when the home side were regrouping before half-time.<\/p>\n

His development has not gone unnoticed, with Bournemouth already bidding \u20ac40m for Leweling this window as they seek a de facto Antoine Semenyo successor. Stuttgart rejected that out of hand. They sense that if they keep Leweling until the summer and watch him fly with Germany, an even bigger bounty might await them. Given the exemplary playing of his Nick Woltemade hand at the beginning of the season, who would doubt their sporting director Fabian Wohlgemuth?<\/p>\n

Leweling shares his board\u2019s view of subscribing to a patient approach. It took him a while to get here, through the academy at Greuther F\u00fcrth and a year at Union Berlin. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to receive offers,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I feel comfortable here. We have ambitions as a team, and I do too.\u201d V\u00f6ller conceded that not all of the Stuttgart seven are likely to come with the squad that travels to North Carolina in June, but the identities of those that have the best chance is coming into focus. With Hoeness expertly steering the ship, those flying the VfB Stuttgart standard from the mast feel they are headed somewhere special again.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideBundesliga resultsShow\"\"<\/p>\n

Bayern Munich 8-1 Wolfsburg, M\u00f6nchengladbach 4-0 Augsburg, Leverkusen 1-4 Stuttgart, Freiburg 2-1 Hamburg, Heidenheim 2-2 Cologne, Union Berlin 2-2 Mainz, Eintracht Frankfurt 3-3 Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n

Photograph: Ralf Ibing\/Getty Images Europe<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

Talking points<\/p>\n

On Tuesday Leverkusen will travel in the midweek fixtures to Hamburg, who are recovering from an unfortunate loss at Freiburg \u2013 they led through Luka Vuskovic and, despite going down to 10 men, only folded under a late, and controversial, Igor Matanovic goal. But the focus is on news that now-former sporting director Stefan Kuntz, who resigned at the turn of the year for \u201cpersonal reasons\u201d, has been accused of sexual harassment by a female employee, according to Bild. While Kuntz moved to \u201ccategorically reject\u201d the allegations in a Sunday night Instagram post, the club confirmed on Monday that Kuntz had been dismissed after having \u201cexplicitly declined\u201d the opportunity to make his case to the board. HSV\u2019s statement went on to underline they had left out some details initially \u201cto protect\u201d the victim.<\/p>\n

For Bayern, what better way to start the new year than by welcoming their favourite bunnies Wolfsburg, who haven\u2019t beaten them in the Bundesliga for almost 11 years and three time ever in 63 meetings before this weekend (give or take Die Wolfe winning the 2015 Super Cup on penalties)? The first half was tight but a 2-1 lead turned into an 8-1 victory with six scored in 26 second-half minutes; Harry Kane got the sixth but Luis D\u00edaz (one goal and two assists) was especially transcendent.<\/p>\n

Luis D\u00edaz after scoring in the thrashing of Wolfsburg. Photograph: Adam Pretty\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

On Friday, neither Eintracht Frankfurt nor Dortmund quite got what they wanted from the Bundesliga restart, a frantic 3-3 draw that the away side really should have won but almost lost having gone behind for the first time in stoppage time, only for Carney Chukwuemeka\u2019s equaliser to save them. Of greater concern going into Tuesday\u2019s visit of Werder Bremen is Serhou Guirassy\u2019s dry spell, with BVB\u2019s No 9 (who also gave away a penalty) now goalless in the Bundesliga since October. F\u00e1bio Silva may now replace him, with Niko Kovac pledging support to the Guinea striker but emphasising \u201ccompetition is important\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If ever there was a weekend to show up on your best form, then this was it. Stuttgart…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-403139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}