Another exciting weekend of Bundesliga action has been completed with matchday 3 providing plenty of highpoints, but also disappointment for others. So, just who were the winners and losers from the latest round of action?
The winners
Bayer Leverkusen
Three games played and three good wins from Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso’s side are certainly living up their pre-season billing as a potential dark horse for a title push. Granit Xhaka has added steel and drive in midfield, Florian Wirtz is looking back to his creative best, while new signing Victor Boniface looks very dangerous and set to score a hatful of goals.
The five goals scored against Darmstadt makes it eleven already this season and the players the coach is able to call on from the bench means that the Werkself are going to cause a lot of teams problems this season. Their real test will come after the international break when they face Bayern on matchday 4.
Niels Nkounkou
Eintracht Frankfurt’s €7.5 million signing from St. Etienne enjoyed the dream debut for the Adler as he came off the bench in the second half to snatch an 87th minute equaliser against Köln at the Deutsche Bank Park. Lurking on the left side of the penalty area, he lashed home a left-foot shot to get his team a share of the points. He only signed on Friday and began life in the Bundesliga in the perfect way. Randal Kolo who?
VfB Stuttgart & Serhou Guirassy
The Swabians were well and truly brought down to earth by Leipzig on matchday 2 after having enjoyed a five goal winning opener in week one. They showed that their first win was no flash in the pan by hitting five again at the MHP Arena to down Freiburg on Saturday. Serhou Guirassy was once again the star man with two goals and there was also a goalscoring return to the team for Enzo Millot. The task now is to try and replicate this stunning home form on their travels.
Werder Bremen
The loss of Niclas Füllkrug, while inevitable, would still have hurt Werder fans, but there was no time for melancholy as the Grün-Weißen smashed four goals past Mainz at the Weser Stadion to show that there is life after Lücke. Ole Werner’s side didn’t just win, they won in style and this will hopefully be the moment their season gets going after a poor start saw them lose in the Pokal and suffer back-to-back defeats in the Bundesliga.
Mathys Tel
The arrival of Harry Kane at Bayern has understandably grabbed all the headlines, but his new understudy Mathys Tel showed against Borussia Mönchengladbach that he too can be the headline maker. His headed winner in the 87th minute kept up the Bavarian’s 100% start to the new campaign and puts Tel on two goals already this season.
The losers
Borussia Dortmund
The first half display at the Signal Iduna park on Friday gave hope that Dortmund had learned their lessons from the first two matches and were on course for a good win as they led 2-0. What then happened in the second 45 minutes was just horrible from a BVB point of view as they stopped playing and allowed visitors Heidenheim to get back into the game.
The fact that going into injury time Heidenheim were the team pushing for a winner tells you a lot and coach Edin Terzic is already coming under increasing pressure scrutiny just three games into the new season. The highs of last season now seem a distant memory.
Kevin Volland
It wasn’t the way Kevin Volland would have wanted his starting debut with new club Union Berlin to go with his red card reducing the Eisernen to ten men and giving them a mountain to climb against RB Leipzig. On his 250th Bundesliga appearance, the former German international caught Mohamed Simakan on the calf with a dangerous tackle without any chance of winning the ball in the 64th minute. Immediately after t
The infraction you could see that he knew he was in trouble and he gave referee Daniel Schlager little choice but to send him off despite his clear remorse.
Darmstadt
The Lilien remain the only side still to gain a single point following their 5-1 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen at the Bay Arena. Torsten Lieberknecht’s side did well to come back and equalise the first goal fairly quickly, but their defence couldn’t keep the Werkself attack at bay with Victor Boniface enjoying another good afternoon. The newly promoted side will need to use the upcoming international break to regroup before they face Borussia Mönchengladbach at home on matchday 4.
Randal Kolo Muani
The Eintracht Frankfurt fans were in no mood to give Randal Kolo Muani any positive parting messages after he finally managed to force through his deadline day move to Paris St. Germain. After going on strike for the Levski Sofia match in midweek, the move looked to have broken down, only for a final deal of 95 million to be done. The fans at the Deutsche Bank Park unfurled a banner on Sunday for ‘Kohle money) Muani’ which read, “Money doesn’t alter someone’s character. It just exposes it”. Ouch!
