SV Sandhausen continued their perfect start to the season to move temporarily level at the 2. Bundesliga summit. They produced a devastating performance to beat SC Paderborn 07 by six goals to nil.
Paderborn came into the game off the back of a hard-fought 2-1 DFB-Pokal victory against VfB Lübeck. The Westphalians opted for just two changes, with both coming at the heart of defence. Florian Ruck and Uwe Hünemeier, who had joined Brighton, were replaced by Niklas Hoheneder and Rafa Lopez.
Sandhausen's 100% beginning almost came to an abrupt end in the cup, they had to rely on penalties to get past Bahlinger SC after 120 goalless minutes. Despite the scare, Alois Schwartz picked the exact same starting eleven that he'd put faith in from matchday one.
Lightning quick start shakes Paderborn
In what was a rather lethargic start from both teams, it was the visitors that took advantage of a really lacklustre opening from Paderborn. Aziz Bouhaddouz did well out-wide and fired in a brilliant cross for Andrew Wooten. The American made no mistake from six yards, beating Daniel Brückner to the ball and giving his side the perfect start.
It got worse for the home side just three minutes later. Denis Linsmayer's effort from 25 yards took a deflection off Dominik Wydra and flew into the left corner of the net. Lukas Kruse was unable to keep it out, leaving Markus Gellhaus, the home fans and his players all shell-shocked.
Kevin Kratz, Linsmayer and Stefan Kulovits were marshaling the midfield admirably and that only heaped further pressure on the hosts. They were to be punished as well, it what was a disastrous start. The former found Jakub Kosecki rather unwillingly, though the Pole gleefully took his chance for Sandhausen's third goal inside 20 minutes.
Paderborn did mount a small fight-back in the lead up to half time but Mahir Saglik and Idir Ouali shot just wide, while Marcel Ndjeng rattled the bar. The half-time whistle came at the wrong time for Gellhaus, but they were equally happy to get back in at the break to regroup.
Second half heaps more misery on the hosts
Despite the introduction of Moritz Stoppelkamp and Süleyman Koc, the hosts soon found themselves four-nil down. Linsmayer continued his impressive game by setting up Bouhhadouz, who shrugged off Rafa, before coolly finishing one-on-one with Kruse. It could have been even worse three minutes later though Leart Paqarada's free-kick rattled the post.
Though, when it seemed that the poor play had run its course, Hoheneder picked a two bookings in as many minutes to earn an early bath. Paqarada then turned proved to capitalise on their man advantage, finding a free Wooten to notch up his brace and their fifth of the game.
The rout was finally completed in the 87th minute after more dominance, as Linsmayer was once again the provider. His cross was headed in by Radislav Jovanovic, rounding off what was an incredible victory. They take on 1. FC Heidenheim next weekend, while Paderborn have to pick themselves up against 1. FC Kaiserslautern on Monday.