BERLIN (AP) — Jamie Gittens got Borussia Dortmund off to a winning start under new coach Nuri Sahin on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in their first Bundesliga game of the season. Gittens scored both goals. The match was marked by Dortmund fans’ protests against their club’s sponsorship deal with a German arms manufacturer.
Frankfurt’s Fares Chaibi had a big chance in the 71st minute but he was unable to react quickly enough to turn Niels Nkounkou’s fiercely struck cross into the goal from close range. The ball flew over. Then Gittens made more of a harder chance at the other end a minute later, eluding a defender on the left of the penalty box before firing in from a narrow angle.
The 20-year-old winger sealed the win on a counterattack in the 90th. Bundesliga runner-up Stuttgart started the new season with a 3-1 loss at Freiburg, while Leipzig survived a sending off to beat Bochum 1-0. Ermedin Demirović fired Stuttgart into an early lead at his former club with a scissors-kick in the second minute, but that was as good as it good for Sebastian Hoeneß’ team, which amassed a club-record points total last season.
Freiburg, which was playing its first league game since long-serving coach Christian Streich’s retirement, responded with three goals to give new coach Julian Schuster a winning start. Bochum was unable to capitalize on Leipzig captain Willi Orban’s late sending off for denying Myron Boadu a clear goal chance. The 19-year-old Antonio Nusa’s second-half strike on his Bundesliga debut was enough for Leipzig.
Holstein Kiel endured a tough welcome to the league in a 3-2 loss at Hoffenheim, where the promoted side conceded an early penalty and had a player sent off late. Augsburg drew with Werder Bremen 2-2, and Mainz held Union Berlin 1-1. AP soccer: https://apnews.
com/hub/soccer.
