Mainz ignited their Bundesliga season with a thumping 5-0 win over hapless Hamburg, while Augsburg climbed to the top of the table following a 4-1 win at Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.
Mainz had lost 4-0 at Hamburg last season, but this time round were in complete control from the start and took the lead on 19 minutes as Sheraldo Becker was played in on goal by Kaishu Sano and picked out the bottom corner.
Becker then turned provider as his low cross was converted at the back post by Phillipp Mwene for a 2-0 halftime lead.
Becker was again involved with the next goal as he set up Phillip Tietz to bundle the ball home.
Tietz then added a fourth as he beat goalkeeper Heuer Fernandes, before ex-Hamburg player Ransford-Yeboah Koenigsdoerffer punished his former employers with a fifth.
Hamburg sit bottom of the Bundesliga table having lost their opening two matches of the season and have yet to find the back of the net, while Mainz are in fifth place with four points from two games.
“It was a very good performance,” Mainz coach Urs Fischer said. “We were in control over the 90 minutes. We really didn’t allow much (chances for Hamburg). We are happy to take the three points with us.”
Augsburg have a full haul of six points following their excellent win at Frankfurt, where they had to come from behind having trailed 1-0 at halftime.
Jonathan Burkardt headed the home side in front inside six minutes from Younes Ebnoutalib’s lofted pass into the box as Frankfurt dominated the chances and might have been out of sight by the break.
But it was a totally different affair in the second period as Arijon Ibrahimovic headed in at the back post on debut inside the first minute of the re-start.
And within a minute of that goal, Augsburg were 2-1 ahead as the ball fell to Robin Fellhauer in the box and he converted to turn the game on its head.
The visitors made it 3-1 when Alexis Claude-Maurice fired in from the edge of the box and Fabian Rieder added a late fourth from a free-kick to complete a comprehensive win.
