2022–23 Bundesliga

The 2022–23 Bundesliga was the 60th season of the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. It began on 5 August 2022 and concluded on 27 May 2023.

Bayern Munich were the ten-time consecutive defending champions and retained their title.

Going into the final match-day on 27 May, Borussia Dortmund needed a home win over Mainz 05 to clinch the title, irrespective of Bayern's result. However, they drew 2–2, and Jamal Musiala's late winner against 1. FC Köln sealed the eleventh consecutive Bundesliga for Bayern. This was the first time since the 1999–2000 season, when Bayern pipped Bayer Leverkusen on goal difference, that the title was decided by a tiebreaker and a team won the title after starting the day second.

Schalke 04 and Hertha BSC were relegated to the 2. Bundesliga.

Bayern Munich celebrated a double championship when both the women's team and the men's team won the top national football leagues within two days.

Summary
The 2022–23 Bundesliga was contested by 18 teams, including promoted sides FC Schalke 04 and SV Werder Bremen. Both promoted teams had recently ended long spells in the Bundesliga by being relegated together at the end of the 2020–21 season.

The fixtures were announced on 17 June 2022. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup was held between 20 November and 18 December 2022 in Qatar, the 2022–23 season featured an extended winter break. As national team players had to be released by their clubs on 14 November 2022, the last Bundesliga matchday before the break was played from 11–13 November (matchday 15). The league resumed ten weeks later on 20 January 2023.

First half
After winning their first match 6–1 at Eintracht Frankfurt, the reigning champions FC Bayern Munich were at the top of the table. They were replaced by SC Freiburg after matchday 5, before 1. FC Union Berlin took over the top of the table for the first time in its Bundesliga history on the sixth matchday. Union Berlin remained at the top of the table for seven weeks until a 5–0 loss to Bayer 04 Leverkusen, which allowed Bayern Munich to regain the lead. Bayern were the only team to lose only once in the first half of the season (0–1 against FC Augsburg) and had a ten-match unbeaten run. With a gap of three points to Union Berlin, Bayern became Herbstmeister and won four more of their games, including a seven-goal defeat of VfL Bochum. Bayern scored the most goals (51) and also conceded the fewest goals (15) in the first 17 matchdays. UEFA Champions League and Europa League participants Frankfurt and RB Leipzig as well as Freiburg and Borussia Dortmund, who had dropped to 8th place in the meantime, were within striking distance.

In addition to Munich's 6–2 win against Mainz, another game in the first half ended with eight goals, namely Cologne's 7–1 win against newly promoted Bremen. After Robert Lewandowski, who was the top goal scorer in the last five seasons in a row, left the Bundesliga, French striker Christopher Nkunku was the top scorer in the first 17 games with 12 goals for Leipzig; Germany's top scorer was Niclas Füllkrug, who only scored one fewer goal.

Bochum finished last in the table between matchdays 3 and 10 after winning just one point in the first eight games. They were followed by FC Schalke 04, who only managed to collect nine points in the first half of the season and thus performed just as they did in the 2020–21 season. In addition, the team only scored 14 goals and therefore not even one per game on average. In contrast, they conceded 41 goals in the first half of the season.

Second half
At the beginning of the year, Borussia Dortmund managed a series of eight wins in eight games. On matchday 21, BVB equalized the gap to leaders Bayern Munich. Because Union Berlin also had 43 points at that point, three clubs were tied at the top of the table, which has never happened so late in a season since the three-point rule was introduced. While the team from Berlin lost touch a little after a 0–3 defeat in Munich, Dortmund was able to win on matchday 25 with a 6–1 win over Cologne and the simultaneous Bayern defeat (1–2 in Leverkusen) allowed them to take the lead in the table for the first time. A few days later, Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann was put on leave and Thomas Tuchel was introduced as his successor. Then BVB lost the direct duel with Bayern 2–4, after which they fell back to 2nd place. Dortmund went undefeated as a result, while Bayern lost 1–3 to Mainz 05 on matchday 29 and RB Leipzig on matchday 33. Both teams have each won one of their games 6–0 (BVB again Wolfsburg, Bayern against Schalke 04) and were two points apart going into the final matchday, with second-placed Bayern Munich having a 14-plus goal difference.

After six clubs fired their coaches in the first half of the season, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim followed suit after matchday 19 as the first club in the second half of the season. They parted ways with their coach André Breitenreiter at the beginning of February 2023 after they had not won nine times in a row from the 11th matchday and had thus slipped from fourth to 13th place, only three points ahead of the relegation play-off and five points ahead of the first relegation rank. After six games in a row without a defeat (ten points, one goal conceded), FC Schalke 04 left the last place in the table on the 23rd matchday. At that point, four teams at the bottom of the table (Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Schalke and Bochum) each had 19 points and Hertha BSC were also almost level with 20 points. There has never been such a close standings in the history of the Bundesliga so late in the season. After Schalke and Bochum, Hoffenheim and Stuttgart finished bottom of the table one after the other, so that there were four different bottom teams on four consecutive match days. During the second half of the season, up to and including the 31st matchday, those teams at bottom of the table scored more points than the teams on top of the table (25:24). During matchday 25 to 30, the league leaders won only once (FC Bayern 1–0 at SC Freiburg). With a 1–1 draw against Hertha BSC, VfL Bochum, who were also threatened with relegation, sealed the relegation of the Berliners from the Bundesliga on matchday 33, after they were last promoted in 2013. Apart from Bochum with 32 points, Stuttgart, FC Schalke (31 points) and FC Augsburg (34 points), who have the same number of points, are fighting against relegation on the last day of the game. Ultimately, FC Schalke went straight down as 17th in the table after a 4–2 defeat at RB Leipzig. Stuttgart could not get more than 1–1 against Hoffenheim and ended up taking the relegation playoff place because Bochum won their home game against Leverkusen with 3–0. Augsburg lost 2–0 in Mönchengladbach but still finished 15th due to the draw in Stuttgart.

In the championship fight, the most exciting duel since the 2000–01 season was looming. With a win in the home game against Mainz, BVB could have become champion on their own. A draw would not have been enough for the championship if Bayern had won due to the worse goal difference.

On the last day of the season, FC Bayern took a 1–0 lead early on in Cologne. A short time later, Mainz made it 1–0 in Dortmund. In the provisional table, FC Bayern had passed BVB. A penalty kick just two minutes later to make it possible to make it 1–1 was missed. Mainz made it 2–0 10 minutes later. Although BVB ran up, whipped up by the 80,000 of their own fans, nothing happened until the middle of the second half. In the 69th minute, Dortmund scored a goal to make it 1–2. In the 81st minute, the Cologne team was awarded a penalty, which they converted to make it 1–1. At this point, BVB was again the leader of the table despite being behind against Mainz. However, Bayern made it 2–1 in the 89th minute and passed BVB again. Although Dortmund still equalized in injury time, the winning goal, which in turn would have meant Dortmund's title win, did not materialize.

Teams
A total of 18 teams participated in the 2022–23 edition of the Bundesliga.

Relegation play-offs
The relegation play-offs took place on 1 and 5 June 2023. The away goals rule was no longer used.

Overview



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Matches
All times Central European Summer Time (UTC+2)

''VfB Stuttgart won 6–1 on aggregate, and therefore both clubs remained in their respective leagues. ''