Substitute Joel Pohjanpalo scored a hat-trick in the last 11 minutes to fire Bayer Leverkusen to a 3-1 win at home to Hamburg SV on an afternoon of late Bundesliga drama on Saturday.
Promoted Freiburg also scored twice in the last five minutes for a surprise 3-1 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach and Sandro Sirigu gave Darmstadt a last minute 1-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt.
Former Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez drew a blank on his debut for VfL Wolfsburg who were held 0-0 at home by Cologne, while Hertha Berlin’s 2-0 win at Ingolstadt left them with six points from two games, alongside Bayern Munich.
Pohjanpalo immediately transformed the game after coming on in the 72nd minute with his side trailing to US forward Bobby Wood’s goal just before the hour.
The Finland international, who has returned to Leverkusen after two years on loan at Fortuna Duesseldorf, headed in Julian Brandt’s cross in the 79th minute to equalise.
The 21-year-old then put Leverkusen ahead with a clinical finish in the 90th minute and struck again in stoppage time as they picked up their first points of the season.
Thorgan Hazard gave Gladbach a first-half lead with a delightful curling shot from 30 metres at Freiburg but Maximilian Philipp levelled with an equally superb strike in the 54th minute.
Philipp volleyed another with five minutes to go and Nils Petersen completed Freiburg’s win by converting a penalty to give Freiburg their first three points since returning to the Bundesliga after a season in the second tier.
[source;rediff.com]
