Mainz 4-4 Hoffenheim, Bremen 1-2 Augsburg

Mainz 4-4 Hoffenheim

De Blasis 3, 23, Cordoba 27, Öztunali 43 - Wagner 39, Uth 71, 72, Szalai 84)

Hoffenheim scored three second-half goals to fight back for a 4-4 draw with 10-man Mainz in a thriller at the Opel Arena.

After a narrow opening day defeat at Dortmund, Mainz were desperate to get their Bundesliga season up and running against a Hoffenheim side that flirted with relegation for much of last season.

Mainz raced into an early lead through Pablo De Blasis, who headed in the opener after Malli Baumann's clearance fell kindly for the midfielder.

De Blasis made it 2-0 halfway through the second half, finishing nicely from Öztunali's cross to give the home side a commanding lead. Things got even better for Mainz minutes later when Colombian John Cordoba scored with a low shot that Hoffenheim keeper Oliver Baumann should have saved.

With Mainz 3-0 up and halftime approaching, Hoffenheim seemed dead and buried in the contest, but the visitors gave themselves a lifeline just before the break when Sandro Wagner slammed the ball into the corner from just inside the box.

But just as Hoffenheim appeared to have found a route back into the game, Mainz extinguished that hope with their fourth, two minutes before halftime, courtesy of Levin Öztunali

At 4-1 Mainz were still in complete control, but the game hinged on a highly debatable call by the referee early in the second half. The referee sent off defender Gaetan Bussmann for tripping Andrej Kramaric on the edge of the box, believing that he had denied the forward a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

From the moment Mainz were reduced to 10 men, the game swung in Hoffenheim's favor and the visitors' scored two goals in as many minutes - both by Mark Uth - to bring Hoffenheim back to within a goal of Mainz and a remarkable comeback.

With six minutes to play, the comeback was complete. After a sustained assault on the Mainz goal Adam Szalai engineered some space in the box and squeezed his shot under Jonas Lössl, making the score 4-4 and stunning the Opel Arena into near silence.

Werder Bremen 1-2 Augsburg

(Johannsson 45+2' - Gouweleeuw 52', Stafylidis 73')

Augsburg fought back from losing an early goal to claim a spirited 2-1 victory at Werder Bremen.

Bremen coach Viktor Skrypnyk was under immense pressure going in to the game and must have breathed a heavy sigh of relief when Zlatko Junuzovic was tripped in the Augsburg box by debutant defender Martin Hinteregger on the stroke of halftime.

American international Aron Johannsson stepped up and calmly slotted the ball past the Augsburg keeper but despite going in to the break with a one-goal advantage, there was certainly enough from the visiting team to suggest all three points were far from confirmed.

Although Alfred Finnbogason's one-on-one miss just before the half hour mark was the only notable chance for Augsburg in the opening half, Dirk Schuster's side certainly looked in control for large parts of the 45 minutes. And that's exactly how they started the second period.

Indeed, the Bavarian side had to wait just eight minutes before they were back on even footing when Daniel Baier's corner found Jeffrey Gouweleeuw in the box, allowing the central defender to stab home a goal.

From there the visitors went from strength to strength. In the 67th minute Ja-Cheol Koo forced a wonderful save from Felix Wiedwald to deny a second, while the South Korean's colleagues peppered the Bremen goalmouth with long-range shots.

Yet it was another set piece that compounded Bremen's misery, when Lamine Sane tripped a player on the edge of the Bremen box. Left back Konstantinos Stafylidis then stepped up and drilled a shot directly in to the top right corner of the goal.

Although Bremen looked far better than in their thrashing by Bayern Munich on Matchday 1, Skrypnyk's side continue their search for their first points of the season and left the pitch to boos and whistles from the home crowd at fulltime. Augsburg got their first points of the season with a deserved away win.