BERLIN: An own-goal from English midfielder Lewis Baker kickstarted an impressive 3-1 win for Bayer Leverkusen over Fortuna Duesseldorf in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Chelsea loanee Baker turned a Kevin Volland cross into his own net after just six minutes, before Champions League qualifiers Leverkusen turned on the style against their helpless hosts.

Charles Aranguiz doubled the lead from a Kerem Demirbay free-kick shortly afterwards, and Volland was involved again with some sharp footwork as Karim Bellarabi made it three just before half-time.

Werder Bremen still have no points from their opening two games after they lost a five-goal thriller to Hoffenheim.

The home side looked comfortable after second-half goals from Ermin Bicakcic and Ihlas Bebou had cancelled out Niclas Fuellkrug’s opener and Bremen had a player sent off.

Yet Yuya Osako drew the visitors level with a slaloming run and fine finish before Pavel Kaderabek’s header three minutes from time sealed a 3-2 win for Hoffenheim.

New Borussia Moenchengladbach boss Marco Rose celebrated his first three points as his side came from behind to beat Mainz 3-1.

Robin Quaison flicked on Daniel Brosinski’s free-kick to give Mainz the lead, before Gladbach right-back Stefan Lainer bundled in the equaliser after a goalmouth scramble on the half-hour mark.

Alassane Plea’s free-kick slipped through goalkeeper Florian Mueller’s fingers on 78 minutes, before Breel Embolo wrapped up the win just one minute later.

Elsewhere, Freiburg, who thrashed Mainz 3-0 last weekend, picked up a second win in two as they came from behind to beat promoted side Paderborn 3-1.

Goals from Luca Waldschmidt, Nils Petersen and South Korea’s Chang-Hoon Kwon secured the win after Streli Mamba had given Paderborn an early lead.

Sebastian Andersson scored Union Berlin’s first ever Bundesliga goal, cancelling out Ruben Varga’s opener to secure a 1-1 draw with his late equaliser at Augsburg.

DORTMUND BEAT COLOGNE

Later on Friday, Borussia Dortmund fought back to beat Cologne 3-1 away with late goals from substitute Achraf Hakimi and Paco Alcacer to make it two wins out of two in the Bundesliga this season.

The visitors were a shadow of the team that put five goals past Augsburg in the season opener last week and only came to life midway into the second half, scoring three times in the last 20 minutes.

Cologne’s Dominick Drexler opened the scoring by nodding home at the far post just before the half-hour with the hosts looking far more aggressive than Dortmund, who fell behind for the second consecutive league game.

A Marco Reus free kick was Dortmund’s best chance in the first half and they had to wait until the 70th minute for Jadon Sancho’s equaliser, his second goal in two league games.

Hakimi then rose above two defenders to head in a pinpoint Lukasz Piszczek cross at the far post to put them 2-1 ahead as Dortmund found a way past the tiring Cologne defence.

Forward Alcacer, Dortmund’s top scorer last season, completed a quick break for their third deep in stoppage time. The Spaniard has scored three goals in their two league games.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2019