Bundesliga Round-Up: Matchday 19

With 30 goals across nine matches, matchday 19 showcased storylines up and down the Bundesliga table.

The action started on Friday night, where Holstein Kiel stole a point late on in a 2-2 draw at Wolfsburg. The hosts' form had been mixed since going unbeaten throughout November (W3, D1), and they took another hit to their European hopes against a Kiel side who are still looking for a first ever away win in the top flight. The Storks struck first when David Zec rose highest to head in Dominik Javorček's corner after 13 minutes, but an early second half double set Wolfsburg back in front. Patrick Wimmer took on Jonas Wind's flick on and poked past Timon Weiner to level the scores, before the roles reversed for Wind to complete the turnaround by heading in Wimmer's corner. The Austrian then hit the woodwork twice as he looked to extend the lead, but Steven Skrzybski had the final say with a close-range near-post effort which crept past Kamil Grabara with 10 minutes to go. 

Hoping to take advantage of Wolfsburg's slip-up were fellow European challengers Mainz and Stuttgart, who played out one of Saturday afternoon's five fixtures. UEFA Champions League (UCL) participants Stuttgart had rallied back into the top four after a poor start to the campaign, but they found themselves open at the back as Paul Nebel twisted and turned to play in Nelson Weiper, who slotted under Alexander Nübel inside half an hour. Mainz remained fairly comfortable after taking that lead, which was put beyond all doubt by Anthony Caci's snapshot just four minutes from time. The 2-0 win puts Mainz just one behind Die Schwaben's tally of 32 points, setting them back on track for a European push after consecutive defeats.

There could have been an outside chance of a title challenge for RB Leipzig after going eight matches unbeaten to start the campaign, but they have since slipped down into that UCL-chasing group. One of the highlights of that previous run was August's 3-2 win at Bayer Leverkusen which ended Die Werkself's historic 35-match unbeaten run in the Bundesliga. And they ended up once again frustrating Xabi Alonso's side, who went two up in the first half after Patrick Schick tapped in his 13th in nine league matches after Florian Wirtz hit the post, before Wirtz stole it from Arthur Vermeeren to set up Aleix García's first Bundesliga goal. However, it was merely five minutes later that David Raum's free-kick was deflected in off the crossbar, and Leverkusen subsequently failed to increase their advantage. That left them open to mistakes, and Leipzig levelled things up at 2-2 when Edmond Tapsoba looped a header into his own net from Xavi Simons' delivery, leaving the reigning champions with just a point and hopes that they would return to the dressing room to learn of Bayern Munich's demise.

But that is rarely the case for the Rekordmeister, who nevertheless made hard work of Freiburg despite not losing to them in nearly 10 years.