Van Buyten gets the party started in Munich

Belgium’s Daniel Van Buyten scored the winner to seal a 2-1 victory over Nuremberg on Saturday as Bayern Munich picked up their third straight league win to help the beer flow at Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest – the Munich beer festival – opened in the south German city on Saturday and Van Buyten’s winner was just the tonic Bayern needed having also opened the scoring in the 3-0 Champions League win over Maccabi Haifa on Tuesday.

After Ivica Olic had put Bayern ahead in the Bavaria derby, striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting threatened to spoil the party in Munich with an equaliser for Nuremberg, before Van Buyten headed Bayern into a 2-1 lead.

Bayern started strongly and Germany striker Mario Gomez appeared to have scored after half an hour when his shot hit both the cross-bar and the goal line, but the replays showed the ball had not completely crossed the line.

Munich got the break-through they craved when 20-year-old Thomas Mueller slid a pass into the penalty area and Croatian striker Olic drilled home his shot on 55 minutes.

Olic then made way for Germany striker Miroslav Klose to make his first appearance since the 2-1 defeat at Mainz having struggled with injury.

Nuremberg threatened to dampen the celebrations in Munich when Ikkay Guendogan timed his pass perfectly and Choupo-Moting was on hand to slot his shot home on 73 minutes.

But van Buyten was not to be denied and he headed home Arjen Robben’s cross on 82 minutes.

With both leaders Hamburg and second-placed Leverkusen playing on Sunday, the result moves Bayern up to third in the table.

Having thrown away a 1-0 lead in the Champions League against Rangers on Wednesday, Stuttgart coach Markus Babbel suffered another disappointment when Cologne picked up their first win of the season at the Mercedes-Benz Arena.

Cologne got off to a dream start when striker Sebastian Freis headed his side into the lead after 25 minutes and it was enough to give his side the three points.

And ex-Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was left red-faced after he brought down Cologne’s Manasseh Ishiaku well out of his area, but Wilfried Sanou was on hand to score from 30 metres out to seal a 2-0 win in the dying stages.

Hoffenheim came back from being 2-0 down to seal a 4-2 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach to go fourth in the lead, while Bochum were beaten 3-2 at home by Mainz who stay fifth.

Hanover held Dortmund to a 1-1 draw.

On Friday, German champions Wolfsburg ended a run of three straight league defeats with a 2-1 win at Schalke as striker Edin Dzeko scored twice.

Wolfsburg were buoyed by a mid-week Champions League debut win over CSKA Moscow and the results leaves the Wolves up to eighth place.