The Bundesliga kicked-off the European football calendar in style. With seven fixtures on Saturday, fans were treated to a true goal feast, seeing the ball hit the back of the net on twenty-six occasions.
Reigning champions and last year's UEFA Champions League victors Bayern Munich began their title defence with a comfortable 3-1 win over Borussia Monchengladbach with goals from Arjen Robben, Mario Mandzukic and left back David Alaba along with some wonderful counter-attacking football. It was a satisfactory start at the Allianz Arena for former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola on his return to the game following a twelve month break from the dug-out.
Last season’s silver medallists, Borussia Dortmund, began their campaign with a resounding 4-0 thrashing of Augsburg with a hat-trick from new striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The £11m signing from French outfit Saint-Etienne becomes only the sixth player in Bundesliga history to score a trio of goals on his debut. A goal from striker-partner Robert Lewandowski sealed the points in a convincing mauling of their opposition.
Elsewhere, Andre Schurrle’s replacement at Bayer Leverkusen, Son Heung-Min, shined for his new club in a 3-1 victory over SC Freiburg. Adrian Ramos and Sami Allagui shared the spoils with a double each in a 6-1 pasting of Eintracht Frankfurt to go top of the league. Hannover 96 turned over nine-man VfL Wolfsburg, newly promoted Eintracht Braunschweig narrowly lost to Werder Bremen by a single goal and 1899 Hoffenheim shared the points with FC Nurnberg in an enthralling 2-2 draw.
Following the exciting action of the first weekend of German football, we take a look at the top five goals that stood out above the rest:
5) Leon Andreasen’s bullet Vs Wolfsburg
The former Werder Bremen and Fulham midfielder opened the scoring against a poor Wolfsburg side with a strong right-footed drive past Diego Benaglio after receiving the ball from Premier League transfer target Mame Biram Diouf.
The Danish international scored only his fifth goal in Hannover 96 colours, totalling his senior career goal tally to twenty-eight.
The breakaway attack caught Wolfsburg by surprise after Andreasen initially won the ball in the opposition’s half before giving colleague Diouf the option to feed Andreasen into space prior to delivering a piercing shot in the seventeenth minute of the game.
4) Arjen Robben brilliant touch Vs Monchengladbach
Arjen Robben continued his inspiring goalscoring record for Bayern with a well-timed toe-poke to give the Bundesliga champions the leads over Monchengladbach.
The opening game of the season, mainly dominated by Pep Guardiola’s side will be remembered for a double hand-ball which saw David Alaba seal the points from the penalty spot following Thomas Muller’s initial failure from twelve yards. Although the highlight-reel saw Robben’s decisiveness outsmart highly rated goalie Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
A poor clearance from Stegen saw Bayern win possession quickly before Robben latched onto the end of a sweeping high ball from Franck Ribery. The Dutch wizard’s experience and swiftness guided the ball into the net giving ter Stegen little opportunity to counter the number ten’s shot.
3) Adrian Ramos’ thumping second goal Vs Eintracht Frankfurt
Adrian Ramos’ second goal of the fixture in the seventy-first minute demonstrated an example to young children of how to finish the ball following an attack of electric tempo and assertiveness.
The Colombian attacker latched onto a swift nutmeg, taking three touches and hovering over the ball before striking low and hard with his left boot from a tight angle.
The speciality here is his ability to switch feet at speed, leading the defender away from covering his goalkeeper before slotting home at the near post. Although Frankfurt keeper Kevin Trapp gets his fingertips to the ball, the velocity of the strike proved too much to keep the ball from hitting the back of his net.
2) Szabolcs Huszti silky skills and nutmeg Vs Wolfsburg
Hungarian midfielder Szabolcs Huszti dazzled defenders with his intricate skills to slot the ball through the opposing goalkeeper’s legs to seal three points for his club.
A wonderful piece of improvisation from Andre Hoffmann saw the midfielder stab the ball through to Huszti who finished with conviction on the edge of the six-yard area. A catalogue of example school-boy-defending errors effortlessly provided the home team with space to pass the ball through the defence, placing the cherry on the cake and leaving Wolfsburg feeling dejected.
1) Aubameyang's second of three goals Vs Augsburg
Goal number two for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in his first Dortmund game was the pick of his hat-trick and the golden prize winner of the day, according to us at LiveSoccerTV!
A ball over the top, controlled off the chest and brought to ground by team-mate Marco Reus saw the German international feed debutant Aubameyang with a delicious pass through three defenders before the striker slotted home from the far left into the bottom right-hand corner.
The Gabonese forward’s technique here even excited coach Jurgen Klopp. His timing and fast feet met the ball at the precise moment before the striker curled the ball around the unaided Mohamed Amsif.
Should Aubameyang continue in this run of form the contentious departure of Mario Gotze to sour rivals Bayern Munich will be long forgotten.
Don’t miss the second round of fixtures on August 17 and 18!
A fitting start to the Bundesliga with plenty of energy and panache will see a penetrative push from the German’s to rival the Barclays Premier League as the best league in the world. With recent success in Europe and examples of class from round-one of thirty-four of the fixture list, the Bundesliga may prove to be too good to miss.
With the ball rolling game number two kicks of from August 17 with succulent meetings between VfL Wolfsburg and Schalke 04 at the Volkswagen Arena, Bayern Munich travel to Eintracht Frankfurt, the transitional VfB Stuttgart host Bayer Leverkusen whilst Dormund welcome newly-promoted Braunschweig to their back-yard.
Get Live Stream and TV Schedules info on the German Bundesliga competition page.
