The opening weekend of the new Bundesliga season saw plenty of goals and plenty of talking points. Schalke cruised to a 3-0 win over Hannover, while Werder Bremen were held to a 2-2 draw by Bielefeld.
Newcomers Hoffenheim had a dream start to life in the Bundesliga with a 3-0 win over Energie Cottbus. Köln on the other hand lost 2-1 to Wolfsburg despite going a goal up.
Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund shared five goals but it was Jürgen Klopp who celebrated a debut victory with a 3-2 win.
Schalke 3-0 Hannover
Wolfsburg 2-1 FC Köln
Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
Karlsruhe 1-0 Bochum
Energie Cottbus 0-3 1899 Hoffenheim
Arminia Bielefeld 2-2 Werder Bremen
Schalke 3-0 Hannover
Schalke’s early form continued as they started the season with a 3-0 home win over Dieter Hecking’s Hannover at the Veltins Arena.
The Königsblauen made the dream start to the game even without their summer signings Farfan and Engelaar. With less than two minutes on the clock a Rakitic corner was headed past Robert Enke by Schalke captain Marcelo Bordon with Vinicius well beaten in the air.
With the home fans still celebrating, Schalke then added a second on eight minutes. Another corner, this time from Pander, saw Bordon beat Vinicius once more and when the ball fell to Kuranyi, the German international fired home with aplomb.
The result was put beyond doubt on 64 minutes with a third goal for Fred Rutten’s side. Ivan Rakitic brought the ball into the centre from the left and Kuranyi grabbed his second of the afternoon with a well placed header.
Kuranyi scored two goals to ensure Schalke have their opening game win.
2′ [1 - 0] M.J. Bordon
7′ [2 - 0] K. Kuranyi
64′ [3 - 0] K. Kuranyi
Wolfsburg 2-1 FC Köln
Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg were made to work by Köln and had to come from a goal down before securing an opening day win.
The Geißböcke grabbed the first goal of the game at the Volkswagen Arena against Felix Magath’s Wolfsburg. With 20 minutes gone, Radu won the ball after a cross from Umit Ozan and played the ball back into the centre. Novakovic was on hand where it mattered to head past a helpless Diego Benaglio.
Three minutes into the second half and the home side were level. Ashkan Dejagah left Pierre Wome standing before laying the ball off to Sascha Riether. His shot was only parried by Mondragon and Christian Gentner was on hand to slot home the equaliser.
The home side then got themselves in front with twelve minutes left through Zvejezdan Misimovic. Dejagah fed the Bosnian midfielder and he tricked keeper Mondragon with a clever effort to fire the Wölfe into a 2-1 lead.
20′ [0 - 1] M. Novakovic
48′ [1 - 1] C. Gentner
78′ [2 - 1] Z. Misimovic
Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 Borussia Dortmund
The Bay-Arena witnessed five goals but it was the visitors who left the happier after a 3-2 win.
The eager fans inside the stadium only had to wait four minutes to witness the first goal of the season, but the home fans were disappointed to see it fall to the visitors. Pole Jakub Blaszczykowski crossed from the right and his ball found Valdez in the six yard box. The Peruvian was quicker to react than Friedrich and slotted home past Fernandez in the Bayer goal.
Bayer fought back though and got themselves back on level terms on 21 minutes. Kiessling played through a clever pass to strike partner Helmes and the former Köln forward beat the offside flag before coolly slotting the ball past the out-rushing Roman Weidenfeller.
Poor defending from the home side on 36 minutes though led to a second goal for Dortmund. Valdez broke down the right and looked up to cleverly find Florian Kringe running in from deep. With two defenders taken out of the game, the midfielder kept his cool to fire past an isolated Benedikt Fernandez in the Leverkusen goal.
Dortmund keeper Roman Weidenfeller then had to go off just before half time after a nasty cut to his knee caused by his own studs. Marc Ziegler came on to replace him.
Four minutes into the second half and Borussia Dortmund scored their third of the afternoon. A Tamas Hajnal corner saw Neven Subotic head home from close range with all the Leverkusen attention on Nelson Valdez.
Leverkusen pulled a goal back with seven minutes left through Stefan Kiessling but it roved too little too late. Sascha Dum crossed and Kiessling headed home from close range to give the home side hope. BVB however held on to claim an impressive away win on Jürgen Klopp’s first game in charge.
4′ [0 - 1] N.H. Valdez
21′ [1 - 1] P. Helmes
36′ [1 - 2] F. Kringe
49′ [1 - 3] N. Subotic
83′ [2 - 3] S. Kiessling
Karlsruhe 1-0 Bochum
Karlsruhe opened their account with a home win after a solitary goal from Christian Eichner secured a 1-0 victory at the Wildparkstadion.
KSC opened their Bundesliga account for the season after half an hour through Christian Eichner. New summer signing Antonio da Silva provided the pass and the left back tried his luck from distance and found the bottom corner of the Bochum goal with a left foot shot.
That goal proved enough to down Bochum and claim all three points.
30′ [1 - 0] C. Eichner
Energie Cottbus 0-3 1899 Hoffenheim
Hoffenheim made the perfect start to life in the top flight with a 3-0 away win over Energie Cottbus. The result was never really in doubt and all those predicting a relegation struggle for the Sinsheim club may just be changing their opinions.
The newly promoted side made the ideal start to the Bundesliga campaign with a goal after 17 minutes against Cottbus. A lapse in concentration in the Cottbus back line allowed the minnows to score. Ba flicked the ball with his head to Ibisevic, who through on goal beat Cvitanovic before firing home from close range.
The new boys then added a second ten minutes into the second period to double their lead against last season’s relegation candidates Cottbus. Ibisevic turned provider this time with a long pass to Demba Ba. The Senegalese striker easily beat Igor Mitreski before beating Tremmel in the Energie goal.
Hoffenheim’s dream start to life in the Bundesliga continued on 76 minutes with a third goal. Ibisevic grabbed his second of the game after an assist from Teber.
16′ [0 - 1] V. Ibisevic
54′ [0 - 2] D. Ba
76′ [0 - 3] V. Ibisevic
Arminia Bielefeld 2-2 Werder Bremen
Last season’s runners-up were held to a point by Arminia Bielefeld at the Schüco Arena.
A weak first half from Werder was rectified on the hour mark when Swede Markus Rosenberg opened the scoring. Hugo Almeida knocked on a Frings corner with his head to Rosenberg who chested the ball over the line from close range.
Bremen however couldn’t keep their lead with Bielefeld’s top-scorer from last season, Artur Wichniarek equalising after 74 minutes. A long ball from inside their own half saw Jonas Kamper head on to Wichniarek, who drilled home past Tim Wiese to make it 1-1.
Six minutes later however and Werder had their noses back in front with Rosenberg again on the score sheet. Bielefeld lost the ball cheaply in midfield and Sanogo laid the ball off to the Swedish striker, who stroked the ball home from 18 meters.
The lead lasted only one minute though with Wichniarek grabbing his second of the game. Tesche got to the bye-line before passing inside to the Polish target man, who converted with ease.
62′ [0 - 1] M. Rosenberg
74′ [1 - 1] A. Wichniarek
80′ [1 - 2] M. Rosenberg
81′ [2 - 2] A. Wichniarek
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