Berlin, Nov 10: Japan star Ritsu Doan scored late as Eintracht Frankfurt beat Mainz 1-0 in their Bundesliga derby.
Doan received the ball on the edge of the penalty area and slalomed past two Mainz defenders who probably expected him to cross the ball before he fired it inside the far post from a difficult angle in the 81st minute.
The goal lifted Frankfurt to seventh in the standings before the international break.
Mainz remained second from bottom after its seventh defeat in 10 games.
Suzuki scores for FreiburgAnother Japan player, Yuito Suzuki, scored his first Bundesliga goal to help Freiburg beat St. Pauli 2-1 earlier Sunday.
The 24-year-old Suzuki, who joined Freiburg from Danish team Brøndby in the offseason, struck five minutes before the break after he intercepted St. Pauli goalkeeper Nikola Vasilj’s attempted clearance of a corner.
Maximilian Eggestein made it 2-0 from close range five minutes after the break, before a goal from St. Pauli’s Louis Oppie against the run of play in the 69th set up a heated finale.
Jackson Irvine went close for the visitors late on, but couldn’t prevent the promoted team’s seventh straight league defeat. Undav shines for StuttgartGermany forward Deniz Undav scored twice as Stuttgart twice came from behind to beat Augsburg 3-2 at home.
The 29-year-old Undav claimed a timely brace before the international break, helping Stuttgart stay fourth ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.
It was Augsburg’s fourth straight defeat across all competitions, meaning coach Sandro Wagner will have an anxious wait to see if he’ll still be in charge for the team’s next game against promoted Hamburger SV on Nov. 22.
Struggling Wolfsburg fired Paul Simonis as coach on Sunday.
Union Berlin ended Bayern Munich’s 16-game winning start to the season by battling to a 2-2 draw on Saturday. Bayern star Harry Kane scored in stoppage time to stop the league leader slipping to its first defeat. As the Bundesliga heads into the international break, it was a weekend defined by Japanese brilliance and late drama. Ritsu Doan’s stunning solo strike sealed Frankfurt’s rise up the table, while Yuito Suzuki’s first Bundesliga goal underlined the growing influence of Japan’s new generation in Germany. Deniz Undav’s heroics for Stuttgart kept the club firmly in the top-four mix, adding further intrigue to an already unpredictable campaign. (AP)
