Bundesliga wrap: Hannover win in style

Hannover began their Bundesliga campaign in style with a 2-1 win over Hoffenheim at the AWD Arena on Saturday.

Fourth in the German top flight last season, Mirko Slomka’s side began the new term with a flourish, as Jan Schlaudraff opened the scoring on the quarter-hour from a free kick.

Sejad Salihovic had the visitors level when he converted a penalty three minutes later, but Schlaudraff was fouled in the area on 30 minutes, and Mohammed Abdellaoue scored the eventual winner from the spot.

Swedish attacker Markus Rosenberg scored both goals in Werder Bremen’s 2-0 win over Kaiserslautern.

Both Schalke and Stuttgart were lucky to survive the drop zone last season, but it was the latter that got off to an ideal start to the new season, winning 3-0 at the Mercedes Benz Arena.

Wolfsburg, another club who escaped the bottom three narrowly last campaign, opened with a 3-0 victory over Cologne away at the Rhein Energie Stadion.

Promoted Augsburg fought back twice to draw 2-2 with Freiburg at the SGL Arena.

The visitors led on 48 minutes through Papiss Demba Cisse, before Sascha Molders equalised for last season’s 2.Bundesliga runners-up.

Cedric Makiadi put Freiburg ahead once more in the 55th minute, and they looked headed for all three points before Molders’ second in the 82nd minute restored parity.