Bundesliga Round-Up

Hannover 2-1 Schalke The action continued in the Bundesliga this weekend with Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen and Mainz 05 continuing their 100% record this season. Dortmund kicked off the weekend's action on Friday night with a 1-0 victory over Werder Bremen. The home side should've won by a larger scoreline but were wasteful in front of goal and relied on Robert Lewandowski's 56th minute goal to win. Bremen almost shocked the home side late on but a superb save from Weidenfeller ensured the points stayed at the Signal Iduna Park. Bayer Leverkusen defeated Borussia Monchengladbach by a 4-2 margin to maintain their perfect start to the season. Kiebling's early penalty gave the home side a lead to defend and they shortly doubled their advantage when Kiebling turned provider and set up Sidney Sam. Gladbach fought back in the second-half with their first goal coming from Martin Stranzl. Soon after they got the equaliser, with Arango beat Leno. However, it didn't stay that way for long. Sidney Sam's second of the game restored Leverkusen's lead before Gonzalo Castro sealed the victory with a thunderous strike from distance. Bayern defeated a resilient Nuremburg 2-0 but it took them until the 69th minute to break the deadlock. Franck Ribery scored the opener with a brilliant header, with Arjen Robben adding the second 10 minutes later. The Dutchman skipped through 3 defenders before slotting the ball through the keeper's legs. Schalke's poor start to the season continued with a 2-1 loss away to Hannover, in a match that will be remembered for the dismissals rather than the goals. Just 15 minutes into the match Schalke's Howedes conceded a penalty and was given his marching orders, Szabolcs Huszti converted the penalty. Diouf made it 2-0 before half-time when he headed home Huszti's cross. Adam Szalai pulled a goal back for Schalke ten minutes after the restart and his side were given a lifeline when Hannover were also reduced to ten men, Szabolcs Huszti receiving a straight red. However, 5 minutes later Schalke were reduced to nine as Christian Fuchs received his second yellow card. A great second-half display kept Mainz joint top of the table as they defeated Wolfsburg 2-0. On the hour mark Maxim Choupo-Moting took advantage of poor defending from a corner to open the scoring, with Wolfsburg new signing Luis Gustavo being sent off four minutes later. Nicolai Müller hammered a shot past Diego Benaglio with 12 minutes remaining to seal the result. Elsewhere, Adrian Ramos scored the only goal of the game in Hertha Berlin's 1-0 victory against Hamburg while Hoffenheim drew 3-3 against Freiburg. Salihovic, Volland and Strobl were on target for the home side while Sorg, Guede and Freis grabbed the goals for Freiburg. In Sundays matches, Eintracht Braunschweig were defeated 2-0 by Frankfurt and FC Augsberg won 2-1 at home to Stuttgart. Frankfurt's first victory of the season was sealed thanks to goals from Meier and Aigner while Altintop and Callsen-Bracker gave Augsburg a 2-0 lead against Stuttgart before Ibisevic pulled one back from the penalty spot just before half-time.
Contributor
Contributor

Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.