Hoffenheim earned their first win in five games on Sunday when they rallied to beat nine-man Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-2 and jump to fourth place in the Bundesliga.
In the earlier game, Fanis Gekas also scored two goals to help Eintracht Frankfurt beat Kaiserslautern 3-0 for their third straight Bundesliga victory. Alexander Meier, who replaced Gekas late in the game, completed the victory in the 82nd minute.
In Hoffenheim, Raul Bobadilla controlled the ball with his chest and slammed it into the net to put the visitors ahead after 12 minutes.
Photo: EPA
Demba Ba scored at the start of the second half and Hoffenheim went up 2-1 on an own goal by Anderson in the 67th after a corner from Sejad Salihovic.
By then, Borussia were down to 10 men after Juan Arango’s red card in the 62nd for retaliating against Salihovic.
The visitors were reduced to nine men when Sebastian Schachten was sent off for bringing down Ba and Salihovic converted the penalty in the 82nd to make it 3-1.
In injury time, Mohamadou Idrissou controlled a cross to score at the near post but time ran out for the short-handed Borussia.
Kaiserslautern earned a questionable penalty in the 26th minute when striker Srdjan Lakic fell after contact with Georgios Tzavellas.
Lakic took the penalty himself but Eintracht’s goalkeeper Oka Nikolov dived to his right for an impressive save.
Eintracht went ahead in the final minute of the first half when Patrick Ochs won possession in midfield, pushed the ball down the right flank and gave a perfectly timed pass to Gekas, who slotted home from close range.
Gekas doubled the lead in the 67th, hitting the target on his second attempt after a low cross from Halil Altintop. The Greek striker now has seven goals in eight games.
“He is incredibly crafty in the penalty area, that’s why he’s so valuable to us,” Eintracht coach Michael Skibbe said.
Eintracht’s Benjamin Koehler cleared on the line to prevent the home side from scoring before Meier came on for Gekas. Meier completed the victory in the 82nd with a sharp shot from close range after a good run by Sebastian Jung.
“The first goal hurt us mentally. We never recovered,” Kaiserslautern coach Marco Kurz said.
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