Big names struggle in flurry of red cards
There was a record number of red cards in the Bundesliga this weekend with eight sending offs in a weekend in which tensions ran high.
Eintracht Frankfurt bounced back from losing their first two Bundesliga matches of the season with a 2-0 victory at Eintracht Braunschweig on Sunday while Stuttgart slumped to another defeat.
Armin Veh's Frankfurt shrugged off defeats to Hertha Berlin and defending champions Bayern Munich to beat promoted Braunschweig, who suffered their third straight defeat to go bottom of the table.
Turkish international Halil Altintop scored his first goal for Augsburg since joining from Trabzonspor in June, as the Bavarians picked up their first points in a 2-1 win at home to VfB Stuttgart.
Altintop fired home on six minutes before Augsburg defender Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker headed a second on 36 minutes. Bosnia striker Vedad Ibisevic then converted a Stuttgart penalty to make it 2-1 at the break.
Stuttgart's Guinea midfielder Ibrahima Traore was shown a harsh red card when he was sent off just six minutes after coming off the bench for an over-zealous challenge on Augsburg defender Ronny Philp.
The defeat left Stuttgart second from bottom, behind other big-names Schalke and Hamburg, while Augsburg and Frankfurt move up to mid-table.
European champions Bayern have learnt they will be without new signing Thiago Alcantara for up to seven weeks. The 22-year-old, who cost 25 million euros ($33.45 million) from Barcelona in July, limped out of Bayern's 2-0 win over Nuremberg on Saturday and a scan confirmed he needs an operation on torn ligaments in his right ankle on Monday.
Bayern set a new club record of 28 league matches without defeat to leave them third in the table behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, who beat Werder Bremen 1-0 on Friday, and Bayer Leverkusen, who saw off Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-2 on Saturday.
Schalke 04 suffered a confidence-sapping defeat ahead of Tuesday's Champions League play-off second-leg at Greece's PAOK Salonica as they lost 2-1 at Hanover 96 and finished with nine men.
The visitors had defender Benedikt Hoewedes sent off on 14 minutes for bringing down Hanover striker Mame Diouf with only the goalkeeper to beat, and Hungary midfielder Szabolcs Huszti drilled home the penalty.
Diouf then headed home three minutes from the break to leave Schalke reeling before striker Adam Szalai pulled one back in the second half.
Having also been hammered 4-0 at Wolfsburg last Saturday, Schalke have just one point from their first three games and lie 15th.
Hoffenheim were held to a 3-3 draw at home by Freiburg in an action-packed game which saw each side finish with 10 men and Freiburg coach Christian Streich banished to the stands.
Mainz are fourth after joining Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen with a 100 percent record following their 2-0 win at home to Wolfsburg, who had new signing Luiz Gustavo sent off for a second yellow card on just his second appearance since signing from Bayern.
After they were humiliated 5-1 at home by Hoffenheim last week, Hamburg
slumped to another defeat, losing 1-0 at Hertha Berlin, with Colombia's Adrian
Ramos scoring the second-half winner.
AFP/tsb
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Eintracht Frankfurt bounced back from losing their first two Bundesliga matches of the season with a 2-0 victory at Eintracht Braunschweig on Sunday while Stuttgart slumped to another defeat.
Armin Veh's Frankfurt shrugged off defeats to Hertha Berlin and defending champions Bayern Munich to beat promoted Braunschweig, who suffered their third straight defeat to go bottom of the table.
Turkish international Halil Altintop scored his first goal for Augsburg since joining from Trabzonspor in June, as the Bavarians picked up their first points in a 2-1 win at home to VfB Stuttgart.
Altintop fired home on six minutes before Augsburg defender Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker headed a second on 36 minutes. Bosnia striker Vedad Ibisevic then converted a Stuttgart penalty to make it 2-1 at the break.
Stuttgart's Guinea midfielder Ibrahima Traore was shown a harsh red card when he was sent off just six minutes after coming off the bench for an over-zealous challenge on Augsburg defender Ronny Philp.
The defeat left Stuttgart second from bottom, behind other big-names Schalke and Hamburg, while Augsburg and Frankfurt move up to mid-table.
European champions Bayern have learnt they will be without new signing Thiago Alcantara for up to seven weeks. The 22-year-old, who cost 25 million euros ($33.45 million) from Barcelona in July, limped out of Bayern's 2-0 win over Nuremberg on Saturday and a scan confirmed he needs an operation on torn ligaments in his right ankle on Monday.
Bayern set a new club record of 28 league matches without defeat to leave them third in the table behind leaders Borussia Dortmund, who beat Werder Bremen 1-0 on Friday, and Bayer Leverkusen, who saw off Borussia Mönchengladbach 4-2 on Saturday.
Schalke 04 suffered a confidence-sapping defeat ahead of Tuesday's Champions League play-off second-leg at Greece's PAOK Salonica as they lost 2-1 at Hanover 96 and finished with nine men.
The visitors had defender Benedikt Hoewedes sent off on 14 minutes for bringing down Hanover striker Mame Diouf with only the goalkeeper to beat, and Hungary midfielder Szabolcs Huszti drilled home the penalty.
Diouf then headed home three minutes from the break to leave Schalke reeling before striker Adam Szalai pulled one back in the second half.
Having also been hammered 4-0 at Wolfsburg last Saturday, Schalke have just one point from their first three games and lie 15th.
Hoffenheim were held to a 3-3 draw at home by Freiburg in an action-packed game which saw each side finish with 10 men and Freiburg coach Christian Streich banished to the stands.
Mainz are fourth after joining Bayern, Dortmund and Leverkusen with a 100 percent record following their 2-0 win at home to Wolfsburg, who had new signing Luiz Gustavo sent off for a second yellow card on just his second appearance since signing from Bayern.
After they were humiliated 5-1 at home by Hoffenheim last week, Hamburg
slumped to another defeat, losing 1-0 at Hertha Berlin, with Colombia's Adrian
Ramos scoring the second-half winner.
AFP/tsb
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