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Berlin, Germany | AFP | Defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich needed two late Robert Lewandowski goals to seal a 2-0 win at Werder Bremen to preserve their 100 percent record, but Borussia Dortmund stayed top after two games on goal difference.
Goals by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nuri Sahin sealed Dortmund’s 2-0 win at home to Hertha Berlin, while Hamburg and Hanover are the only other clubs in Germany’s top flight with two wins from two.
RB Leipzig roared back from a poor first half with four unanswered goals in their 4-1 win over Freiburg to get their first points of the campaign.
Here are five things we learned from the second round of matches:
Badstuber’s joy
Some 2,822 days and five operations since his previous Bundesliga goal, bad-luck victim Holger Badstuber scored the winning header in VfB Stuttgart’s 1-0 win against Mainz.
The Germany international was a regular at Bayern Munich when he last scored in the Bundesliga back in December 2009.
But back-to-back serious knee injuries, torn ligaments and a broken ankle in the last seven years and 265 days threatened to end his career.
Both Schalke, who took him on loan in January, and Bayern refused to give Badstuber a contract for this season, so he joined newly-promoted Stuttgart in a bid to rebuild his career.
Badstuber roared with joy after his 53rd-minute header.
“It was nice to get all the emotion out, it did the team and myself a lot of good,” he said.
Dortmund eye Dolberg
Ousmane Dembele has left for Barcelona, but Borussia Dortmund are already eyeing a replacement — Danish youngster Kasper Dolberg.
The 19-year-old forward is set to follow Borussia head coach Peter Bosz from Ajax.
“We have to see if everything works. I think it will, but nothing is 100 percent sure,” Bosz told Sky.
Dortmund brushed off the loss of Dembele with Christian Pulisic dazzling on the right wing in the win over Hertha.
Wrath for the VAR
The video assistant referee (VAR) is being trialled in the Bundesliga, but controversial decisions still abound.
Bayer Leverkusen director Rudi Voeller was fuming after Mark Uth’s equaliser for Hoffenheim stood in their 2-2 draw, even as replays showed he fouled Benjamin Henrichs in the process.
“What were they doing in Cologne? He was probably sleeping in front of the television,” ranted Voeller, with VAR decisions being made from a centre in Cologne.
“If you can’t see something like that, then we don’t need video refs.”
Likewise, Augsburg coach Manuel Baum was livid after his team’s 2-1 defeat on Saturday when the video referee failed to spot a handball by Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Jannik Vestergaard early on.
“I don’t know why the video referee didn’t intervene, you can’t say that was a penalty 100 percent, it was more like 1,000 percent,” quipped Baum.
Hoewedes mulls Juve move
Having been stripped of the Schalke captaincy by Schalke’s new coach Domenico Tedesco, 31, Benedikt Hoewedes was again on the bench for Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Hanover, amid rumours of a possible move to Juventus.
German World Cup-winner Hoewedes has a Schalke contract until 2020 and Juventus have reportedly made an offer of 15 million euros ($17.8m).
“Juventus made contact and Benedikt told me on Thursday that he can imagine leaving the club in the direction of Turin,” said Schalke director Christian Heidel.
Bremen’s new record
Werder’s defeat to Bayern was a league record 16th straight loss to the Bavarian giants, who they last beat more than a decade ago.
“It’s a real pity. We’d have liked to have given our fans something worthy after such a barren run,” said Bremen coach Alexander Nouri.
After losing their first game 1-0 at Hoffenheim, Bremen are now bottom of the early table, but giant Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu, at Danish side FC Midtjylland, is reportedly on Bremen’s radar.
#Schalke! Taking over your town, turning it #RoyalBlue and white ?⚪️ #H96S04 pic.twitter.com/5OBlVCNcoY
— FC Schalke 04 (@s04_en) August 27, 2017
Der neue Anführer des BVB ist ein alter Bekannter https://t.co/egvMEARBcG pic.twitter.com/fQZpAOWcOK
— WELT Sport (@WELT_Sport) August 27, 2017
