Borussia Dortmund resumed the campaign with a bang after a hat-trick from new signing Erling Haaland inspired the side to a 5-3 hammering of Augsburg at the WWK Arena.
Dortmund were 3-1 down before they handed Haaland his debut from the bench 11 minutes from the break and the Norwegian star forward netted a hat-trick within 20 minutes to turn the game on it's head with Julian Brandt and Jadon Sancho also among the goals.
Florian Niederlechner scored a brace for Augsburg while Marco Richter also scored for the hosts, but it was not enough.
Fortuna Dusseldorf missed the chance to get out of the drop zone after they beaten 1-0 by ten-man Werder Bremen at Merkur Spiel-Arena.
Florian Kastenmeier scored an own goal in the 67th minute to give Werder the lead and although Niklas Moisander was sent off in stoppage time, the visitors had already done enough to clinch victory.
Timothy Chandler snatched the winner in the second stanza for Eintracht Frankfurt as they edged Hoffenheim 2-1 at Prezero Arena.
Bas Dost gave Eintracht the lead in the 18th minute before Konstantinos Stafylidis levelled matters for Hoffenheim.
However, Chandler snatched the winner for the visitors just after the hour-mark.
FC Koln made a winning start to the new year after defeating Wolfsburg 3-1 thanks to a brace by Jhon Cordoba at RheinEnergieStadion.
Cordoba gave Koln a two-goal cushion going to the break while Jonas Hector made it 3-0 in the 62nd minute. Renato Steffen scored what proved to be the consolation goal for Wolfsburg four minutes later.
Nils Petersen scored the decisive goal for Freiburg, who registered a 2-1 victory over Mainz at Opel Arena.
Chang-Hoon Kwon broke the deadlock for Freiburg in the 28th minute before Petersen secured a two-goal lead four minutes before the break.
Jean-Philippe Mateta pulled a goal back for Mainz in the last eight minutes but the visitors held on to victory.
