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.
The visitors took the lead when Frankfurt captain Alexander Meier’s 52nd-minute shot flew in off the shoulder of defender Ermin Bicakcic, while midfielder Stefan Aigner pounced on a mistake to add the second 10 minutes later.
Later, 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 decision left both the 25-year-old Traore and Stuttgart coach Bruno Labbadia incredulous and the player will miss at least the next league game against Hoffenheim on September 1.
The defeat left Stuttgart second from bottom, behind other big-names Schalke and Hamburg, while Augsburg and Frankfurt move up to mid-table.
Meanwhile 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.
French winger Franck Ribery’s header on 69 minutes broke the deadlock against Nuremberg before Dutch star Arjen Robben netted the second for Pep Guardiola’s team, who earlier had a first-half penalty saved.
The win at Munich’s sold-out Allianz Arena marks the start of a busy seven-day period for Bayern, who are away to Freiburg in the league on Tuesday, then travel to Prague for Friday’s showdown with Chelsea in the European Super Cup.
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 Moenchengladbach 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.
There was a flurry of cards in the last 15 minutes as Hanover’s Huszti was sent off for fouling Schalke’s Tim Hoogland, then Schalke left-back Christian Fuchs was dismissed five minutes from time for a second yellow card.
Having also been hammered 4-0 at Wolfsburg last Saturday, Schalke have just one point from their first three games and lie 15th.
Another defeat at PAOK will leave coach Jens Keller in a precarious position after the Royal Blues drew 1-1 at home in Wednesday’s first leg.
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.
Frankfurt, Augsburg pick up first points
