Munich, Aug 30 (IANS) Bayern Munich cruised to their third win of the season after beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-0, while Eintracht Frankfurt inflicted VfB Stuttgart the third straight loss in the third round of the Bundesliga football league.
The German record champions on Saturday showed a faultless performance at home against harmless Leverkusen to reap their third win in as many matches. German international Thomas Mueller had large shares on the victory as he scored a brace within 60 minutes at the Allianz Arena, Xinhua reported on Saturday.
The defending champions dictated the pace from the kick-off against the visitors from Leverkusen. Thus, Bayern broke the deadlock with 26 minutes into the clash as Douglas Costa shrugged off one defender to set up for Mueller, who tapped in from inside the box.
Costa was again in the thick of things moments later but the Bayern new arrival rattled only the woodwork from very close range. Leverkusen showed a vital sign through Hakan Calhanoglu before the break, but his effort dropped only off the bar in the 37th minute.
Bayern were able to double their lead after the interval as Roberto Hilbert pushed down Arturo Vidal inside the box, allowing Mueller to sew up his brace from the spot at the one-hour mark.
However, Bayern weren’t done with the scoring as Leverkusen’s Hilbert caused another penalty after blocking the ball with his arms inside the penalty area.
Arjen Robben converted the awarded penalty and rounded off the 3-0 victory against Leverkusen, who suffered their first defeat of the season. The 3-0 victory moved Bayern atop the standings with nine points for the moment.
Stuttgart’s negative run continues as they suffered their third consecutive loss. Clinical Frankfurt showed no mercy against home side Stuttgart and snatched three points on the road with a 4-1 win at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
Despite a good start into the game by Stuttgart, it were the “Eagles” who marked the opener against the run of the game as defender Adam Hlousek deflected Haris Seferovic’s header into his own goal in the 11th minute.
Stuttgart recovered from the setback and restored parity with 30 minutes into the game through Daniel Didavi, who poked home a ball into the area by Serey Die.
The hosts had even the chance to grab the lead for the first time but Martin Harnik squandered the golden chance from two metres. Frankfurt’s new arrival Luc Castaignos punished Stuttgart’s wastefulness just before the break by making it 2-1 on the scoreboards.
Things changed from bad to worse for Stuttgart as goalkeeper Tyton Przemyslaw brought down Castaignos to see a straight red card and to cause a penalty in the 67th minute. Frankfurt’s Haris Seferovic stepped up and converted the penalty for the 3-1 lead.
Hence, Stuttgart were unable to put up some resistance allowing Frankfurt to score the fourth goal of the afternoon as Castaignos wrapped up his brace with three minutes remaining.
With the result, Frankfurt sealed their first away win against Stuttgart since November 2014.
Cologne flabbergasted Hamburg SV with a two-minute comeback to earn their second win in three games.
Both sides staged and unspectacular first half in which scoring opportunities remained a rare occurrence. However, things changed with the restart as Hamburg’s Lewis Holtby scored the opener with a left footed strike following the assistance by Sven Schipplock in the 47th minute.
It looked like Hamburg could steal three points from Cologne but substitute Philipp Hosiner levelled the scores in the 79th minute before Hamburg’s Emir Spahic saw a straight red card following a foul play inside the box two minutes later. Anthony Modeste stepped up and scored the 2-1 winner for the hosts to put the game beyond doubt.
Elsewhere, Hannover still wait for their first win of the season as they lost 0-3 to relentless Mainz. The “Nuellfuenfer” set the course for the win with two first-half goals by Yoshinori Muto.
Newly promoted Ingolstadt edged Augsburg FC 1-0 thanks to Mathew Leckie’s 22-metre strike and newly promoted Darmstadt shared the spoils with TSG Hoffenheim following a goalless draw.
The following games are scheduled for Sunday: Borussia Dortmund clash with Hertha Berlin and SV Werder Bremen encounter Borussia Monchengladbach.
