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