Leaders Leverkusen win late as Bundesliga bids goodbye to Beckenbauer

Bayer Leverkusen started where they left on Saturday as their Bundesliga season resumed with another victory, but this time it was a last-gasp 1-0 win at Augsburg thanks to Exequiel Palacios.

The Argentina World Cup winner struck in injury time to leave Xabi Alonso's side four points clear of champions Bayern Munich, who had returned from the mid-season break with a 3-0 home victory over Hoffenheim on Friday. Bayern also have a game in hand.

Like all Bundesliga matches this weekend, the game in Augsburg held a minute's silence for Franz Beckenbauer, who died last Sunday.

Leverkusen are now unbeaten in 17 league games and are top at the halfway point of the season. They claim the unofficial "winter champions" moniker as they dream of a first ever Bundesliga title.

"We stayed in the game, we kept believing," Leverkusen's emergency centre back Robert Andrich told Sky. "We didn't just boot the ball forward, we tried to keep playing. We were rewarded."

Fourth-placed RB Leipzig came out of the mid-season break still in slumber, Eintracht Frankfurt - in sixth - recording a 1-0 win in eastern Germany. It was Leipzig's first home defeat of the league season despite dominating the chances.

New signings Donny van de Beek and Saša Kalajdžić came straight into the Frankfurt side but it was Ansgar Knauff with an early finish from Niels Nkounkou's superb cross who made the difference.

Frankfurt coach Dino Topmöller said: "We have an unbelievably strong mentality. Together as a team we defended superbly. The new players have not had long to settle but I must say the lads did fantastically well."

Borussia Dortmund are three points behind Leipzig in fifth after winning 3-0 at bottom side Darmstadt.

Julian Brandt's scuffed finish midway though the first half and a second-half goal from Marco Reus - set up by the returning Jadon Sancho - helped the Black and Yellows' seal a first league victory in five matches. Youssoufa Moukoko added the third in stoppage time.

Dortmund, without the ill Mats Hummels, handed a starting debut to Chelsea loanee Ian Maatsen at left back while fellow new loan signing Sancho came off the bench for his Dortmund return.

The winger looked bright and calmly set up Reus despite having been banished from the Manchester United first team since September.

Third-bottom Mainz drew 1-1 with Wolfsburg, Freiburg and Union Berlin played out a 0-0 stalemate and new Cologne coach Timo Schulz began his reign with a 1-1 draw at home to Heidenheim. The hosts stayed second-bottom.

On Sunday, third-placed VfB Stuttgart visit Borussia Mönchengladbach after Bochum face Werder Bremen.

Leverkusen, without injured top scorer Victor Boniface and with Florian Wirtz starting on the bench, struggled to break down Augsburg in the first half although Alejandro Grimaldo did hit the bar.

Striker Patrik Schick, in his 100th game for Leverkusen, scored a hat-trick in the last game of 2023 but the Czech could not break the deadlock despite the visitors having 24 attempts on goal.

Playmaker Wirtz was introduced to try to conjure up some magic yet it looked too late.

But then Alonso's men, also missing players due to the African Nations Cup, showed they were made of the stuff of champions despite Leverkusen's nickname of "Neverkusen" - having finished second five times in the Bundesliga.

Spain's Grimaldo, one of the signings of the season, passed to Palacios and his fellow midfielder rifled home.

Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen thought he was set for a first Bundesliga clean sheet, but it was not to be for the mid-table side.