Early pacesetters producing fireworks as second-tier campaign heats up
With heavyweights Fortuna Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe and Hamburg, surprise packages Magdeburg and aspiring Paderborn all in the mix, the Bundesliga 2 promotion race looks like being even more exciting than ever.
bundesliga.com assesses the season so far for the current top five in the second-tier table.
Fortuna Düsseldorf
Current position: 1st
Points: 17
Goal difference: +4 (Goals scored/conceded 11/7)
Unlike the three teams behind them, the current leaders have lost a game, heading into the November international break after a surprise 3-0 home defeat to Hamburg. But the scoreline did not tell the whole story. "If you put in a performance like we have, you won't often lose games like this," said coach Daniel Thioune, who saw his current team rack up 22 goal attempts, 24 crosses, 10 corners and 2 xG against his former club only for Düsseldorf's 21-game unbeaten streak in the second tier to come to an end. "We definitely didn't lose this game in defence, it's that we didn't win it in attack."
It was a rare drawing of a blank for a team that had only been held goalless - in the 0-0 draw with Karlsruhe on Matchday 2 - in their opening seven games. Not that they have gone wild in front of goal: only two of their five wins have been by more than a one-goal margin, and they were a brace of 2-0 victories.
Watch: Hamburg stunned leaders Fortuna on Matchday 8
With only 11 goals scored, Thioune's men have the lowest such tally among the top five, and the summer departure of last season's top scorer, Christos Tzólis, is no doubt a factor in that. But the key to their success is clear: with seven goals conceded - only four of which came in the first seven games - they have the meanest defence among the early season pacesetters.
Ísak Jóhannesson, Danny Schmidt and Tim Rossman - arrived on loan from FC Copenhagen, Mainz and Karlsruhe respectively - have slotted in well, while Düsseldorf fans will be keen to see what 19-year-old forward Dženan Pejčinović - who has been prolific with Germany's successful youth teams - can bring to the front line.
Verdict: Strikers win games, defences win leagues, but Düsseldorf will need their forwards to get them points at times if they are to secure a top-flight return after a five-season absence
Magdeburg
Current position: 2nd
Points: 16
Goal difference: +8 (Goals scored/conceded 17/9)
The spectacle usually produced by the city's all-powerful handball team has been translated onto the football pitch. OK, it's not quite that spectacular, but only three teams - and two in the top five - have outscored Christian Titz's side.
Want more Bundesliga Action?
What will worry the veteran coach though is his side have kept just two clean sheets all season. If they could have kept a third in their Matchday 8 encounter with Greuther Fürth, they would have been top of the table now, but instead threw away a 2-0 lead - quite literally handing their opponents a way back into the game in slapstick manner - to concede two goals in a BL2 match for the third time this season. "We dropped points," stated an irritated Titz; defender Jean Hugonet put it more bluntly: "At 2-0 up and to finish 2-2, that's a bad result."
A trip to Hamburg on Matchday 9 will be a stern test of their promotion-challenger credentials, but it is perhaps not quite as daunting a test as it would seem. The draw with Fürth means Magdeburg have not won at home in nine games stretching back to a 3-0 defeat of Schalke last February. By contrast, they have won all four away trips so far in 2024/25.
They too have moved smartly in the summer transfer window to remould a squad that finished 14th last season, just six points above the bottom three. Martijn Kaars has made the transition from the Dutch second division to Germany smoothly with four goals in eight appearances, while the addition of Kaiserslautern fan favourite Philipp Hercher, who has struck twice in five games, will surely prove a good one if he can shake off persistent injury concerns.
Verdict: Certainly one to watch, but will drop away if poor home form continues
Watch: Paderborn made light work of Jahn Regensburg on Matchday 8
SC Paderborn 07
Current position: 3rd
Points: 16
Goal difference: +7 (Goals scored/conceded 16/9)
Just a single goal separates Paderborn from the automatic promotion spots, and like Magdeburg ahead of them and Karlsruhe hot on their heels, they are one of the three teams still unbeaten. Regrets? Coach Lukas Kwasniok may have a few after seeing his team come from behind to let the lead slip twice in a neutral-pleasing but coach-annoying 3-3 draw at Münster, a result that came on the back of failing to break down Ulm (0-0), who are currently 14th, the previous Matchday.
After finishing seventh, sixth and seventh again last season since Kwasniok succeeded Steffen Baumgart in summer 2021, the Polish-born tactician will be looking for confirmation of progress. Victory over Hannover on Matchday 6 and a 2-2 draw at Hamburg on Matchday 7 - followed by a 3-0 sweeping aside of bottom side Jahn Regensburg just before the international break - does suggest he might get it.
Only four players have scored more goals than Filip Bilbija (5) this season, while 19-year-old Aaron Zehnter - a summer arrival from Augsburg where he made just one Bundesliga appearance - looks to be a particularly cute piece of business: he is currently joint-top of the assists chart with four, and talked recently of the squad's "good chemistry". "We mustn't pat ourselves on the back too much," countered Kwasniok after his team's comfortable Matchday 8 win. "In the next phase, we have to play at Kaiserslautern, Cologne and Düsseldorf."
Verdict: A promising work in progress, but upcoming fixtures will be acid test of quality
Karlsruhe
Current position: 4th
Points: 16
Goal difference: +5 (Goals scored/conceded 19/14)
Only games involving Schalke (35) have seen more goals than those with Karlsruhe participating. A brace of 3-2 wins in their opening three games - sandwiching an out-of-character but excellent goalless draw in Düsseldorf - set the tone, and they have been every neutral fan's favourite team to watch since. With Budu Zivzivadze having already grabbed six league goals - only Hamburg's Robert Glatzel has done better - and Martin Wanitzek four, they can take chances. Their problem has been that they keep giving opponents them too.
The three games before the October international break show everything that is right - and wrong - about Christian Eichner's team: nine goals scored, nine goals conceded, and only three points for all that excitement to slip from second to fourth.
They have shown tremendous resilience in their fragility, coming back from 3-0 down after just 15 minutes and also trailling 4-2 at half-time in Cologne in a heart-stopping Matchday 7 encounter. They also bounced back from leading 1-0 to trailing 3-2 to claim what Eichner called "a fortuitous point" at home to Darmstadt on Matchday 8 just before they and their fans could catch their breath.
Watch: Karlsruhe played out a mesmerising 4-4 draw with Cologne
"From the 30th to the 70th minute, we were all over the place in our own stadium. I don't think we crossed the halfway line once, we didn't make any challenges, we were slow in the head," said Eichner after seeing his team's sluggish performance and late rally set pulses racing once again. "But eight games, no defeats, that's a very very good return."
Verdict: Who knows where Karlsruhe will finish, but on this form - wherever it is - it'll have been quite the ride!
Hamburg
Current position: 5th
Points: 15
Goal difference: +11 (Goals scored/conceded 19/8)
Is this the year the Dinosaur gets back into the Bundesliga after what must feel like a Jurassic period out of the top flight? Following six seasons of near misses, Hamburg fans will be desperately hoping so. That optimism is justified, especially given HSV have faced four of the current top seven already this season, and all but one of them away from home.
Promisingly, Hamburg have picked up seven points in those fixtures with an opening-day win in Cologne and narrow derby defeat in Hannover on Matchday 3 followed by a come-from-behind 2-2 draw with Paderborn and the resounding if flattering 3-0 triumph in Düsseldorf. "The result had nothing to do with the performance of both teams," acknowleged Hamburg boss Steffen Baumgart, as he doffed his trademark cap to the league leaders.
Watch: Hamburg won their Bundesliga 2 opener at the RheinEnergieStadion
Glatzel maintaining goalscoring form will surely have a big say in Hamburg's success, but his history of 91 goals in 180 Bundesliga 2 games, including seven in six appearances already this term, suggests he will do that.
Though Cologne were eventually relegated after he left in December 2023, the stardust Baumgart sprinkled on Paderborn in guiding them from the third tier to the top flight in successive seasons between 2017 and 2019 is what Hamburg are looking for, and he has a solid-looking squad which includes Bundesliga experience in the shape of Davie Selke and Marco Richter, Serie A nous with Silvan Hefti, and Ligue 1 savoir faire thanks to Łukasz Poręba and Lucas Perrin following some eye-catching moves in the transfer market.
Verdict: The Red Shorts have bite, and look to have staying power
Related news
Joel Matip: Made in the Bundesliga
The newly-retired ex-Schalke defender cut his teeth in the game at one of the finest youth academies in world football before going on to star at Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool.
Bosnians in the Bundesliga
There will be plenty of familiar faces to Bundesliga fans when Germany face Bosnia on Friday.
Who is Deniz Undav?
Get to know Stuttgart and Germany's goalscoring star, who has started the 2024/25 campaign in phenomenal form for club and country ...