St. Pauli shine, Köln stun Freiburg, Dortmund bounce back: What happened on matchday 2 of the Bundesliga

Another weekend of Bundesliga drama has come and gone. Here are the matches and moments that Sports Talk United think you may have missed.

St. Pauli dominant in the Bundesliga’s first Hamburg Derby since 2011

Friday, August 29th 2025 saw the first Hamburg derby in Germany’s top flight since February 2011. Funnily enough, the results were similar. In February 2011, St. Pauli took on Hamburg SV in the Millerntor Stadion, to put it into context, the last time these teams faced each other in the Bundesliga, Dortmund won the league under Klopp. Fourteen years later they are both back in the Bundesliga at the same time. In the preview to the season, it was clear that whichever Hamburg team lost their derbies would be in a prime position to return to the 2. Bundesliga.

This match was the first game of Matchday 2 to kick off, on the Friday evening. All eyes were on this clash. It wasn’t long until the first chances of the game came, and quickly enough St. Pauli found themselves leading. In the 19th minute, a corner taken by Pyrka was left for Mathias Pereira Lage to whip low into the box, found by Adam Dźwigała and kicked goalward. Hamburg keeper Fernandes got a hand to it but was unable to stop the goal. Pauli’s first shot on target had found the back of the net.

Pauli found the back of the net once more in the first half but it was blown up by the referee, for a supposed foul by the attackers during a scuffle for the ball, before the cross had even been made. Pauli remained dominant in the first half, but we unable to put away another goal.

The beginning of the second half was rocky for St. Pauli as Hamburg’s striker Ransford Yeboah Königsdörffer seemed to find the back of the net in the 48th minute to equalise, though after a lengthy VAR review, it was ruled that the goalscorer had been marginally offside. Pauli remained ahead.

St. Pauli dominated in the first Bundesliga Hamburg derby since 2011 (Imagn)

Hamburg were mounting pressure on Pauli and it seemed that an equaliser was inevitable, however, that was not the case. In the 60th minute, a beautiful through-ball by Joel Chima Fujita cut through the Hamburg defence to leave Andreas Hountondji free of the defenders in front of goal. Hamburg’s goalkeeper came rushing out but Hountondji glided around him and with a great finish at a hard angle managed to slot the ball into the back of the net. It was two-nil to St. Pauli.

More chances came for both Pauli and Hamburg but neither side could capitalise. Things went from bad to worse for HSV as in the 77th minute Giorgi Gocholeishvili received his second yellow card of the night and got his marching orders. Hamburg were down to ten men with a mountain to climb.

Predictably, the game ended with no further action of note. St. Pauli had won the first Hamburg derby of the season, reminiscent of their last Bundesliga Hamburg derby victory all those years ago, which had been their first ever.

Hamburg were totally unconvincing, registering only 5 shots of which only 2 were on target. Pauli were dominant with 17 shots, 6 of which were on target. Hamburg’s last shot was in the 68th minute.

Dortmund blessed by Guirassy brace on Westfalenstadion return

Borussia Dortmund played their first match of the season in the Westfalenstadion on Matchday 2 of the Bundesliga. They took on Union Berlin in a match that already meant a lot for die Schwarzgelben as they had dropped two points to St. Pauli in the opening weekend after finding themselves three-one up with ten minutes to go. If Dortmund want to mount any sort of challenge to Bayern this season, bottom-half of the table teams need to be beaten every single time. There is no room for dropping points, especially this early into the season.

The match kicked off on the Saturday evening, Dortmund would need to step up and stage a comprehensive win. The game began slowly, chances came for Dortmund but they were squandered. Very early into the game, Serhou Guirassy made a run into the box but shot the ball way over the crossbar. There was a long pause mid-way through the first half as Dortmund’s Jobe Bellingham and Union’s Andrej Ilic clashed heads and both players were injured. Bellingham’s head began bleeding but he continued to play after his head was bandaged. Guirassy received another chance to score after a terrible backpass from Union left him alone in the box, one on one with the Union keeper, but he managed to block the shot.

Union got a few chances towards the end of the half. One chance in particular was disastrous for Dortmund, which should have resulted in a Union goal. Dortmund’s new arrival on loan, Aaron Anselmino, who had a stellar debut otherwise, attempted to head the ball back to Kobel as Ilic chased him down. The header fell short and Anselmino was sent tumbling, Ilic found himself in a great position but could not finish and the ball tumbled wide of the goal.

Dortmund finally found the back of the net in the 44th minute after a great run by Yan Couto gave him space to cross the ball into the box directly to Guirassy, who volleyed it goalward at close range. Union’s goalkeeper had no chance. Dortmund led one-nil going into the second half.

In the second half, Union once again had several chances but Dortmund were lucky to have Gregor Kobel parry them away. In the 58th minute, a magical one-two between Guirassy and Maxi Beier left the striker right in front of the keeper. Guirassy lightly chipped the ball past him and into the back of the net, while running off to celebrate. A great bit of teamwork that shows that Dortmund could be a team to really do something this season, if they can replicate moments like this again and again. It is also noteworthy that Anselmino began the play.

Goal of the season. pic.twitter.com/uTi5zPo5Vq
— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) September 1, 2025

Once again, Union had chances, one in particular was sure to be a goal if it wasn’t for another superb tackle by Aaron Anselmino. In the 81st minute, a corner for Dortmund was floated into Union’s box, it wasn’t cleared by Union’s defence and Felix Nmecha ran up and smashed it into the bottom right corner. It was three-nil to Dortmund, and the match would end like that.

Not only did Guirassy do what he does best, but Dortmund’s new arrival really stepped up at a time when Dortmund needed a defender. Nico Schlotterbeck is back in training and could be back for Matchday 3 against Heidenheim, but with this young Argentinian, Dortmund might not need to worry about Schlotterbeck’s absence too much after all.

Union were unlucky to not score, they could have been more clinical, but their defence could not stand the pressure that Dortmund were putting on them for ninety minutes. Dortmund found a much-needed win after the previous weekend’s disappointment.

Relegation favourites storm to victory in their first home game of the season

Koln were relegation favourites before the season began, and now sit in third place (Imagn)

The weekend’s last match saw FC Köln take on Freiburg in their long-awaited return to the RheinEnergie Stadion. In Sports Talk United’s preview of this Bundesliga season, it was mentioned that Köln were favourites to be relegated at the end of the season. What happened that evening in the RheinEnergie Stadion may have changed a few opinions on relegation favourites.

The first twenty minutes saw one-way traffic, with Freiburg spending most of the time in Köln’s half. From the 25th minute, things started to change. Köln were relentless in their attacks on the Freiburg box. This pressure paid off in the 35th minute when an extremely precise ball crossed in by Marius Bülter was volleyed past the Freiburg keeper by Jakub Kaminski, putting the hosts one-nil up. The rest of the first half was relatively uneventful, Köln had chances but were not clinical enough to finish them.

Something changed with the second half, and not to the benefit of Freiburg in the slightest. In the 47th minute, just moments after the second half kicked off, Jan Thieleman floated a lovely cross across the box to which Bülter rushed across to head into the back of the net. Bülter returned the favour by assisting Thieleman nine minutes later for a goal of his own. Freiburg had collapsed. The game continued in this fashion, with the hosts getting several more chances to extend their lead, but they only scored one more goal. In the 81st minute, the ball rebounded, landing at the feet of Said El Mala just inside the box, he buried it, four-nil to Köln. The visitors managed to get one back minutes later through Maximilian Eggestein but it remained a consolation goal, as the match ended four-one to Köln.

Köln did not seem to be a team destined for relegation through this performance. Despite holding 61% possession, Freiburg were second-best in almost every other metric. Köln had 18 shots, 6 of which were on target, while Freiburg had 12 shots but only 2 on target. Freiburg had just one more touch in the opposition box than Köln, though, rarely threatened.