Five Bundesliga teams played pre-season friendlies on Tuesday in preparation for the 53rd Bundesliga season, which begins on 14th August when Bayern München host Hamburger SV. Naturally there were many Germany internationals in action in these friendlies, so DFB.de has created an overview of the games and the performances of Germany international players.
World Champion Lukas Podolski celebrated a perfect debut for his new club Galatasaray. In a 2-1 win for the Turkish champions against Celta Vigo, Podolski won the penalty for Emre Çolak to open the scoring before the striker made it 2-0 himself. Daniel Rivas made the game more exciting with his reply for Vigo. In the build-up to Podolski’s goal, Vigo’s defender Andreu Fontas failed to control a long ball and Podolski won the ball to score his first goal in a Galatasaray shirt. The 30-year-old moved to Istanbul from Arsenal and signed a contract until 2019.
U19 international Leroy Sané put Schalke into the lead in their friendly against Polish first-division side Lechia Gdansk. The attacking midfielder scored the only goal of the game shortly before half time in a narrow victory for the Royal Blues. Coach André Breitenreiter made several changes throughout the game. World Cup winner Julian Draxler started the game for Schalke alongside U21 internationals Johannes Geis and Max Meyer. Shortly before the end Meyer made the score 2-0.
A hat-trick by Germany U20 international Levin Ötzunali helped Werder Bremen to a commanding 9-0 win over Oberliga side Blumenthaler SV. As well as the three strikes from Ötzunali, there were also goals for Fin Bartels, new signing Anthony Ujah, Julian von Haacke, Izet Hajrovic and Levent Aycicek. Victor Skripnik’s team will face an obviously more difficult task on Saturday (17:00 CEST) when they face Europa League champions Sevilla during Bremen’s fan fest at the Weser-Stadion.
Jonas Hector and his side 1. FC Köln lost their friendly against Espanyol 2-0. After many changes on both sides, Christian Alonso and Marc Caballe scored to win the game for the Spanish side.
Despite new signing Vladimir Darida’s first goal for Hertha BSC, his side failed to overcome English Championship side Fulham, with the match ending 2-2. After Darida’s early goal, Jens Hegeler doubled the lead from the penalty spot. But the English side came back through Adam Taggart and Cauley Woodrow to make it 2-2 at the end.
Mainz 05 stood very little chance against Champions League quarterfinalists AS Monaco as they lost 5-1. Spaniard Jairo Samperio scored the opener for the team from the Rhineland, but then the team from Ligue 1 began to show off its superiority. Anthony Martial scored twice and Ivan Cavaleiro scored to turn the game around before half time. Layvin Kurzawa and Guido Carrillo then netted in the second half for Monaco.