Strong start

Hanover and Wolfsburg both climbed in the Bundesliga soccer table Sunday after beating Kaiserslautern and Freiburg respectively.

In Kaiserslautern, Hanover's Norwegian international Mohammed Abdellaoue scored the only goal of the match 33 minutes into the game, putting his team in third place.

After Abdellaoue's goal, Hanover allowed Kaiserslautern to dominate. The home team should have equalized on several occasions, but instead Leon Jessen only hit the post and Brazilian defender Rodnei squandered a good chance, shooting wide late in the game.

With 13 points after six games, Hanover have completed their best-ever start to the season.

Hanover goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz, formerly of Kaiserslautern, said he experienced "mixed emotions" over his team's victory.

"Kaiserslautern is very close to my heart, but I said before the match that we needed to win," Fromlowitz said.

"I am glad that we managed to do that, but after the game I went to Kaiserslautern's goalkeeper coach Gerry Ehrmann and their goalkeeper Tobias Sippel and thanked them as they were great to work with when I was still with the club."

Wolfsburg jump up the table

Wolfsburg scored their third win in a row 2-1 against Freiburg as they continued to recover after losing their first three games of the season.

Despite a rocky start to the season, the 2009 Bundesliga champions are now in sixth place with nine points from six matches.

Wolfsburg's Grafite opened the scoring for the home side after 25 minutes when he managed to head home from a free-kick by Brazilian Diego.

Freiburg's Papiss Demba Cisse levelled the score in the 36th minute after a series of miskicks and poor clearances saw the ball come to the Senegalese international, allowing him to score from three meters.

Cisse should have scored again six minutes after the break when Daniel Caligiuri broke clear and laid the ball to him, but Cisse missed the open goal from 12 meters out.

Grafite headed in from another Diego free kick in the 64th minute.

"The foul happened on the touchline but the free kick was taken five metres inside the pitch," Freiburg coach Robin Dutt told reporters. "The referee made a mistake but so we did by allowing Grafite a free header."

Grafite meanwhile said he was happy to have secured his side the win. "I am pleased that we picked up the three points. We are doing well going forward and I think we have a strong team."

Author: David Levitz (AFP/dpa/Reuters)

Editor: Richard Connor