Lewandowski scores but Bayern held at Schalke

AFP/BerlinLast season’s Bundesliga top scorer Robert Lewandowski scored his first competitive goal for new club Bayern Munich but the champions had to settle for a 1-1 draw at Schalke 04 yesterday. Despite having new signing Xabi Alonso in the Bayern team 24 hours after he joined on a two-year deal from Real Madrid, they looked far from their best as Schalke got their first point to snap a two-game losing run with a gutsy second-half performance. Lewandowski opened his account when he flicked in a pass from Sebastian Rode in the 10th minute as Bayern dominated. The visitors, despite missing half a dozen players through injury, overran their opponents in the first half with World Cup winner Alonso, who had more touches than any other Bayern player, confidently dictating their game from the back. However, Bayern took their foot off the gas in the second half, with Schalke pressing higher and earning a deserved equaliser when captain Benedikt Hoewedes bundled the ball over the line to leave Bayern with four points from two games.Bayer Leverkusen moved top of the Bundesliga after twice coming from behind to beat Hertha Berlin 4-2. Following their impressive win in Dortmund last week, Leverkusen made it two wins from two thanks to late goals from Julian Brandt and Karim Bellarabi. “This was a very tough game for us and because of that it was very valuable,” Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt said. “At half-time we saw it as a challenge to grow into such a game. In the end we deserved to win so hats off to my team.” Tin Jedvaj turned into his own net as visitors Hertha took the lead in the first half but the Croatian defender made amends when he levelled on 50 minutes. Hertha made it 2-1 on the hour when Julian Schieber nodded in his third goal of the campaign but two minutes later Emir Spahic headed home from a free-kick. Brandt then smashed home with 16 minutes left after Bellarabi had struck the bar. Bellarabi, who scored the fastest goal in Bundesliga history last weekend, rounded off the scoring with the best goal of the game. Paderborn earned their first ever win in the Bundesliga with an impressive 3-0 victory at Hamburg. Elias Kachunga pounced on the rebound for his second goal in as many weeks after 29 minutes and he had another disallowed for offside before half-time.   Pierre-Michel Lasogga went close to an equaliser before Paderborn’s Mario Vrancic intercepted a pass and rounded Hamburg keeper Rene Adler with 21 minutes left. Moritz Stoppelkamp added a third late on meaning that - including last season’s relegation play-offs - Hamburg have now failed to win their last nine league matches. “Paderborn fully deserved to win,” Hamburg coach Mirko Slomka said. “Our performance, overall, was shocking for us - a bitter result. We’ve really disappointed our fans.” Cologne also got their first victory since returning to the top flight by beating Stuttgart 2-0. Japanese forward Yuya Osako put the away team ahead after 22 minutes and things got worse for Stuttgart before half-time.  A mistake by Antonio Ruediger, who was called up to the Germany squad this week, allowed Anthony Ujah to volley home from outside the box. Hoffenheim meanwhile were unable to keep pace with Leverkusen after they were pegged back in a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen. Brazilian attacker Roberto Firmino put Hoffenheim in front after 19 minutes but Alejandro Galvez equalised for the home team with 30 minutes left.