Berlin, Sep 12 (IANS) Ten-men Mainz gave away a 4-1 lead to share the spoils with resilient Hoffenheim following a 4-4 draw and Augsburg turned the tides to reap a 2-1 victory at Bremen, at the closure of the second round of the Bundesliga football league.
Mainz looked like the certain winner of the match after 45 minutes and a 4-1 lead on Sunday. However, a straight red card for Mainz' Gaetan Bussmann, following a professional foul, allowed Hoffenheim to restore parity thanks to the brace from Mark Uth and goal from Adam Szalai, reports Xinhua.
Hoffenheim's defence staged a sloppy first-half performance as Mainz broke the deadlock with just three minutes into the game when Pablo De Blassis headed home a rebound from close range.
De Blassis was in the thick of things twenty minutes later after he poked home Levin Oeztunali's square pass into the box from eight meters to double lead.
Despite the two-goal lead, Mainz were not done with the scoring as Jhon Cordoba slotted home the 3-0 lead from eleven meters into the bottom right corner in 27th minute.
Hoffenheim showed a vital sign just before the break after Sandro Wagner drilled his right-footed effort into far post corner in the 37th minute.
Mainz responded immediately and restored their three-goal lead through Oeztunali, who tapped home from eleven metres with two minutes remaining in the first half.
Mainz started with a setback into the second half as Dussmann was sent off with a straight red card after fouling Andrej Kramaric as the last man in the 57th minute. Things went from bad to worse for the hosts as substitute Uth provided a brace to reduce the arrears to 4-3 in the 71st minute.
Hoffenheim pressed Mainz into the defence and got rewarded with 84 minutes played after former Mainz player Adam Szalai restored parity to snatch Hoffenheim a 4-4 draw on the road.
With the result, both teams wait for a win in the new season. Mainz earned their first point of the season whereas Hoffenheim craved out the second draw.
Elsewhere, Bremen suffered the second loss in as many games after squandering a 1-0 lead against Augsburg. The "Green-Whites" opened the scoring through Aron Johannsson, who converted a foul play penalty before the interval.
Augsburg remained unimpressed and turned the tides with the goals from Jeffrey Gouweleeuw and Konstantinos Stafylidis to secure the first victory of the season.
--IANS
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