Bundesliga Sunday Roundup: Stuttgart Stutter, Leverkusen Cruise

Sunday’s Bundesliga matches saw Mainz host a Sami Khedira-less Stuttgart, and Bayer Leverkusen travel to Borussia Dortmund.

Mainz, rather shockingly, dismissed Stuttgart by a scoreline of two goals to nil, which will not come as a welcome sign to the Stuttgart faithful who have failed to reinforce after losing both Aliaksandr Hleb and Sami Khedira over the summer. Cacau’s missed penalty in the twenty minutes in was a sign of things to come as Mainz took control of the match and netted twice through Sami Allagui and summer signing Morten Rasmussen just after half-time. Stuttgart are always slow starters, so they’ll want to put this result behind them and improve drastically for next gameday.

Bayer Leverkusen, who signed German midfielder Michael Ballack on a free transfer from Chelsea this summer, travelled to Borussia Dortmund who look to be a side on the up. While Ballack looked like he still needed some time to bed in at Leverkusen, his side performed impressively and chalked up an away win against a lacklustre Dortmund side. Goals from Tranquillo Barnetta and Renato Augusto, just three minutes apart, sealed a win for Leverkusen who will be looking to push for a Champions League berth this season.