BERLIN (AP) — Deniz Undav celebrated his return to the Germany squad by scoring for the sixth consecutive Bundesliga game in Stuttgart’s 5-2 rout of Augsburg on Sunday.
This time Undav scored twice to take his tally to 18 for the season and deliver Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann a timely reminder – if he needs one – of his prowess before World Cup warmup games against Switzerland and Ghana.
The win lifted Stuttgart to third with seven rounds remaining, well placed to finish among the top four for Champions League qualification.
Undav opened the scoring in the 12th minute. Nikolas Nartey set up Tiago Tomás in the 29th, two minutes before scoring himself to put Stuttgart 3-0 ahead.
Fabian Rieder pulled one back for Augsburg after the break, but Undav replied a minute later to reassert the visitors’ dominance.
Anton Kade scored in the 71st for Augsburg and Undav set up Ermedin Demirović to complete the scoring with a tap-in against his former club in the 83rd.
Stuttgart moved three points clear of Leipzig and Hoffenheim, with Bayer Leverkusen four points further back in sixth.
Where’s Götze?
Eintracht Frankfurt dropped World Cup hero Mario Götze and lost 2-1 at local rival Mainz in their derby earlier Sunday.
Paul Nebel scored both goals for Mainz, grabbing the winner in the 89th minute to set off wild celebrations and deal Frankfurt its second defeat under new coach Albert Riera.
Nebel opened the scoring in the sixth minute before Nathaniel Brown responded for Frankfurt in the 20th, then Nebel fired home the rebound after Frankfurt ’keeper Michael Zetterer saved Nelson Weiper’s header.
Götze’s omission prompted questions for Riera before kickoff, when the Spanish coach asked which of his players should make way for the former Germany star to be in his squad after Arthur Theate, Can Uzun, Younes Ebnoutalib and Ansgar Knauff all recovered from injuries.
“Name me one player,” Riera challenged his pre-game interviewer on broadcaster DAZN. “If I could take 21 players, he’d be included,” he said. “Mario also had some physical problems during the week and wasn’t always at 100%. And I had to make a decision about who the best players for the bench are.”
Götze, who scored Germany’s World Cup-winning goal in 2014, has featured sparingly for Frankfurt this season, making 18 league appearances over 27 rounds and completing only one full Bundesliga game. He didn’t appear at all in Frankfurt’s last two games and seems to have lost some standing under Riera compared to the previous coach, Dino Toppmöller, who was fired in January.
Mainz’s win lifted it six points above St. Pauli in the relegation zone.
Familiar face thwarts St. Pauli
Igor Matanović returned to St. Pauli and scored twice for Freiburg to win 2-1 and leave his hometown club stuck in the relegation playoff spot.
Danel Sinani opened the scoring but St. Pauli was unable to add any more, and Matanović equalized in the 65th before tucking home a rebound for the winner in the 78th. The Croatia forward refused to celebrate out of respect for his former club.
“I was able to play here for 13 years. I was here as a small kid, I was in the stands, then a ball boy. I really enjoyed being able to play here today,” Matanović said. “When I came out on the field before everything started, the fans gave me a really warm reception and I appreciate that so much. Yeah, but today I have the Freiburg crest on my chest and I have to give everything for the club and that’s what I did today.”
St. Pauli players wore jerseys in support of “Kein Bock auf Nazis,” an antifascist group fighting intolerance and right wing ideologies. The slogan loosely means “couldn’t be bothered with Nazis.”
St. Pauli’s gesture came as the league displayed the slogan “ Together! Stop Hate. Be a Team ” across all games as part of an anti-discrimination campaign.
Also Sunday, Cologne fired Lukas Kwasniok as coach after a seven-game winless run, and Borussia Dortmund parted with sporting director Sebastian Kehl after they reached what the club called an “amicable” decision.
Bayern Munich leads the Bundesliga by nine points and is closing in on its 13th German championship in 14 years.
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