Berlin (AFP)

Dortmund defeated Mönchengladbach 3-0 on Saturday, already with a brace from the prodigious Erling Haaland, the day after Bayern's shattering 8-0 victory over Schalke in the opening match of the Bundesliga.

The vice-champions of Germany, who played at home in front of the public for the first time since March, were carried by their "juniors": the 17-year-old American Giovanni Reyna opened the scoring with a pass from the little English prodigy Jude Bellingham, also 17 (1-0, 35th).

Then Reyna got a penalty transformed by "the old" Erling Haaland, 20 (2-0, 54th).

The Norwegian then doubled his own bet on a service from Jadon Sancho, another gifted 20-year-old Englishman (3-0, 77th).

Arrived last January in Dortmund, Haaland had scored 16 goals in 18 matches last season in all competitions.

After one day, Bayern are provisionally in the lead on goal difference, ahead of Hertha Berlin, Augsburg, Dortmund, Freiburg and Hoffenheim, all three points behind.

Leipzig starts Sunday at home against Mainz (3.30 p.m.).

- Thuram on the bench -

For this resumption match, the huge Signal Iduna Park welcomed only 10,000 supporters - against 82,000 before the coronavirus - but it still shuddered for the first time with forgotten emotions in more than six months.

Even if, without its "Yellow Wall", the south turn with 24,000 fanatics standing, the mythical enclosure has not yet fully recovered its soul.

For the two ambitious teams, who are aiming for at least the top-4 at the end of the season, qualifying for the Champions League, this back-to-school meeting was a way of already marking their territory, and of not giving up against a Bayern Munich that we feel almost invincible this season.

The final score does not really reflect the appearance of a very balanced match, where Mönchengladbach even seemed more incisive in the first period.

But the "Colts" were deprived at the kick-off of their two star strikers Alassane Pléa and Marcus Thuram, not sharp enough, according to their coach, to start the match: "Both are options for us, they are in the group , but cannot yet be 100% ", said Marco Rose the day before the meeting.

They came together shortly before the hour mark, with Dortmund already leading 2-0.

Without being able to reverse the dynamics of the match.

- Bayern already in the lead -

In the other matches this Saturday, Hertha Berlin temporarily placed second thanks to a 4-1 away victory in Bremen.

Augsburg (3-1 in Berlin against the Union), Friborg (3-2 at the promoted Stuttgart) and Hoffenheim (3-2 in Cologne), are the other winners of the day.

Frankfurt was held in check at home by the promoted Bielefeld (1-1).

But all the teams will have watched on Friday with their throats the demonstration of Bayern, which wiped out Schalke as he had done exactly five weeks ago against Barcelona in the Champions League (8-2), before winning the event. by successively beating Lyon (3-0) and Paris SG in the final (1-0).

Barring a huge surprise on Sunday, this score will therefore allow the "Rekordmeister" to take the lead from the start, in his quest for a ninth consecutive league title.

Bayern have not lost a match since December 2019, and remain on 22 consecutive wins.

The Bavarians fired their fireworks behind closed doors.

German politicians had yet given the green light to Bundesliga clubs on Tuesday to allow the partial return of supporters to stadiums, but on condition that the infection rate in the region remains below 35 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The figure for Munich has recently risen sharply, and now exceeds 47 / 100,000.

© 2020 AFP