Leverkusen fights past in-form Frankfurt to earn first Bundesliga win

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LEVERKUSEN, Germany (AP) — Alejandro Grimaldo scored from two free kicks and Bayer Leverkusen beat in-form Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 to record its first Bundesliga win and give coach Kasper Hjulmand a winning start to his reign on Friday.

Hjulmand has led Leverkusen for only a few days after Erik ten Hag was sacked just two games into the season.

The morale-boosting victory came despite Leverkusen playing the last half hour with 10 men following the dismissal of captain Robert Andrich. Teammate Ezequiel Férnandez was also sent off in stoppage time.

They started fast. Grimaldo curled in a beautiful free kick with only 10 minutes on the clock.

Patrik Schick's penalty made it 2-0 on the stroke of halftime after Nathan Tella was brought down by Frankfurt captain Robert Koch.

Can Uzun threatened to dampen the home fans' optimism when he made it 2-1 early in the second half but no comeback materialized even after Andrich’s dismissal for a second bookable offense in the 59th minute.

Instead, Grimaldo iced the win with another superb free kick in stoppage time.

Relief swept the BayArena following a tumultuous start to the season.

Ten Hag was chosen to rebuild the squad after a summer exodus in the wake of coach Xabi Alonso’s departure for Real Madrid. Few players remain from the Bundesliga and German Cup champions in 2024.

However, the experienced Dutchman was unable to stamp his authority on players who ignored his instructions and argued among themselves in a 3-3 draw with Werder Bremen on Aug. 30.

He was fired and replaced with Hjulmand, who had just two trainings to prepare his charges to face Frankfurt, a team whose record after two league games was bettered only by Bayern Munich.

The former Denmark coach — whose previous experience in the Bundesliga was a short and unsatisfactory stint in charge of Mainz in 2014-15 — had been out of work for more than a year since Denmark’s last-16 exit at the European Championship.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer