Hannover defeat Schalke

Hannover came from behind to beat Schalke 2-1 on the opening Saturday of the season, piling more pressure on head coach Jens Keller.

The Royal Blues may have been dumped out of the German Cup on Monday, but there was no sign of a hangover early on. Schalke had the better of the chances and dominated the majority of the first half at the AWD-Arena. Keller's side sprung out of the traps after the restart, finally breaking down the Hannover rearguard two minutes into the second half.

Former Mainz attacker Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting beat the Hannover offside trap and handed Klaas-Jan Huntelaar the easy task of converting into an empty net. The Dutchman has scored four goals in three opening day matches since moving to Germany in 2010.

Hannover coach Tayfun Korkut tapped into his substitutes and brought on former Nuremberg attacking-midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake to add some ingenuity in the middle of the pitch. Minutes later, the Reds responded with Edgar Prib coming from midfield to slide in at the back-post to convert Leonardo Bittencourt's brilliantly-judged cross from the right-flank.

Then, buoyed by the leveler, Hannover completed an impressive turnaround, three minutes later. Prib fought tenaciously in midfield and initiated a rapid counter-attack. The midfielder charged 30 yards up field, before finding Joselu in acres of space and the Spaniard dispatched the ball past Schalke goalie Ralf Fährmann.

The defeat adds more worries for the Royal Blues who are only now seeing several players return from a lengthy summer injury list. But a bigger concern is the future of head coach Keller, with Schalke suffering an embarrassing defeat to third-division Dynamo Dresden in the first round of the German Cup this past Monday.

Keller has been followed by continuous pressure since taking up the head coach role in 2012. The 43-year-old inspired the Royal Blues to a record points total in the second half of the season, but the critics continue to linger.

With Keller's deal up in 2015, it remains to be seen whether sporting director Horst Heldt will reconsider Schalke's plans for the forthcoming season.

Quickest goal ever

Schalke's arch-rivals Borussia Dortmund went down 2-0 in the late Saturday evening match, with Bayer Leverkusen's Karim Bellarabi scoring the quickest goal in the league's 52 seasons.

The 24-year-old, who spent last season on loan at Eintracht Braunschweig, showed quick feet to beat Matthias Ginter, before tucking past Mitch Langerak. Dortmund were unusually sluggish in attack, lacking the efficient pressing traps, evident in their 2-0 win over Bayern Munich last week in the DFL Super Cup.

As Dortmund committed for the win, Leverkusen were nippy on the counter-attack. The club's new coach Roger Schmidt has introduced a similar style to that he used at Red Bull Salzburg last season.

In the fourth minute of added on time, Stefan Kießling broke behind the committed Dortmund backline and poked the ball past the Australian-born keeper. It's already his seventh goal of the season.

Bremen fight-back in Berlin

Earlier in the day, Werder Bremen recovered from 2-0 down, netting twice in 120 seconds to take a share of the spoils from their trip to Hertha Berlin. Julian Schieber, who ended his tough stint at Borussia Dortmund this summer, scored two goals from close range either side of the interval.

In the 16th minute, Schieber opened his league account for the Old Lady, nodding in from inside the six-yard box. The striker's second was far from pretty, either, as he finished after good work from Haraguchi.

Even with one shot on goal before Assami Lukiyma's header to cut the deficit, Bremen weren't deterred. Two minutes later, in the 55th minute, Robin Dutt's side attacked with purpose and Franco di Santo reacted well to the rebound from his initial effort to level the scores.

Hoffenheim and Frankfurt start on a high

Elsewhere, Hoffenheim's attacking strength came out on top, as they handed Augsburg a 2-0 defeat. The Bavarians were one of five Bundesliga casualties in the first round of the German Cup and Augsburg's woes continued.

Markus Gisdol's side scored both of their goals in a two-minute salvo, midway through the first half. Firstly, Adam Szalai punished some weak defending after Augsburg's Marwin Hitz spilled an initial effort from Roberto Firmino. Then, as the gates appeared to open right up in the Bavarians' defense, Firmino was influential in setting up Tarik Elyounoussi for his first league goal for the club.

In Frankfurt, Haris Seferovic scored his first Bundesliga goal in the 15th minute, finishing from close range after perseverance from both Takashi Inui and Lucas Piazon. Despite the vibrant attacking combination of Admir Mehmedi and Vladimir Darida, Freiburg barely troubled Frankfurt's Kevin Trapp, as Thomas Schaaf collects his first win in charge of the Eagles.

No goals in Cologne

One of the league's newly-promoted sides Cologne, who played in front of a 55,000 sell-out, could only manage a point on their return to the top-flight, firing a blank against Hamburg.