Teen winger Culbreath scores on debut as Leverkusen beats Leipzig in Bundesliga

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German-American winger Montrell Culbreath scored on his senior debut to cap Bayer Leverkusen's 3-1 win over Leipzig on Saturday, putting Leverkusen back among the Bundesliga title contenders.

The 18-year-old Culbreath, who has represented Germany and the United States at youth level, came off the bench in the 77th. With Leipzig searching for an equalizer, Culbreath surged up the field on a stoppage-time breakaway and scored into the top-left corner, wheeling away with arms wide in celebration.

Culbreath then had to wait to learn if his goal would count as VAR checked Leipzig's claim of handball in an earlier incident at the other end.

Leverkusen enters the winter break third in a season which began in chaos when Erik ten Hag was fired as coach after three games. Kasper Hjulmand has overseen nine wins in 13 Bundesliga games since.

Leverkusen dominated early on but Leipzig opened the scoring through Xaver Schlager's low shot fromthe edge of the box after the defense was slow to react at a throw-in.

Martin Terrier leveled five minutes later with a header from Arthur's cross, and Patrik Schick scored Leverkusen's second near halftime, leaving a defender sprawling and lofting the ball over the goalkeeper.

Leverkusen held on to inflict Leipzig's first home loss of the season despite missing left back Alejandro Grimaldo, center back Edmond Tapsoba and attacking midfielder Ibrahim Maza due to injury or the Africa Cup of Nations.

Leverkusen climbed to third, dropping Leipzig to fourth. Bayern Munich leads by six points from Borussia Dortmund and plays Heidenheim on Sunday.

Dzenan Pejcinovic scored a hat trick and was still on the losing team as Wolfsburg succumbed to Freiburg's late surge 4-3.

Pejcinovic hadn't scored in the Bundesliga before but the 20-year-old forward, starting because Mohamed Amoura was away at the Africa Cup, made his mark with three goals as Wolfsburg exploited defensive errors by Freiburg.

Wolfsburg's own blunders also proved costly as defender Jenson Seelt, on loan from Sunderland, gave away a penalty and diverted a save from goalkeeper Kamil Grabara into his own net.

That allowed Freiburg to level the score twice before substitute Derry Scherhart scored a 78th-minute winner.

Freiburg stayed ninth and Wolfsburg dropped to 14th with a loss after Daniel Bauer was confirmed as coach on a permanent basis earlier Saturday. Bauer had been interim coach since Paul Simonis was fired last month.

Eintracht Frankfurt ended 2025 in seventh place with one win from its last six games in all competitions, after drawing with Hamburger SV 1-1.

A poor pass across Frankfurt's defense was picked off by Albert Sambi Lokonga to give Hamburg the lead before Hugo Larsson leveled for Frankfurt off Nathaniel Brown's cross.

An offside header from Stuttgart's Deniz Undav in stoppage time was as close as his team and Hoffenheim got in their 0-0 draw, a result which didn't help either team's push for the Champions League places. Hoffenheim ended the day fifth, Stuttgart sixth.

András Schäfer scored a dramatic winner from a corner in stoppage time as eighth-placed Union Berlin finally broke down 10-man Cologne for a 1-0 win following Rav van den Berg's earlier red card for handball.

Augsburg and Werder Bremen drew 0-0.

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