Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a first-half hat-trick as Mainz lifted themselves off the bottom of the Bundesliga with a surprise 3-1 win at Freiburg, their first three-pointer of the season.
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Mainz moved onto four points from eight games and leapfrogged Cologne, Arminia Bielefeld and winless Schalke, who lost 2-0 at home to Wolfsburg on Saturday and now sit bottom.
"I'm very happy about my three goals but obviously it is more important that we took the three points," the 23-year-old Frenchman Mateta said.
"That was a team win."
In Sunday's other game, Max Kruse made up for a missed penalty by scoring from the rebound as Union Berlin beat Cologne 2-1 to stay fifth.
Mainz went into their game at Freiburg knowing an elusive win would lift them out of the relegation places, at least for a few hours.
And they made an electric start with striker Mateta sprinting clear of the defence and finishing in style past Freiburg keeper Florian Muller, who is on loan from Mainz.
The chances kept coming for the visitors and Mateta doubled their lead on 34 minutes when he fired in after Muller had failed to hold Robin Quaison's shot.
The 23-year-old Mateta then scored his seventh of the league campaign when he just avoided going offside to strike five minutes from the break.
Nils Petersen cut the deficit just after the hour mark.
Freiburg, who missed the impetus of the crowd at their famously tight ground, have only won once in the league this term.
Kruse had a record-equal 16 straight penalties in the Bundesliga before his latest effort was saved by Cologne goalkeeper Timo Horn, but he still managed to get on the scoresheet in the 72nd minute.
Taiwo Awoniyi, on loan from Liverpool, capitalised on a defensive mix-up to putUnion Berlin ahead on 27 minutes.
Ellyes Skhiri headed in a free kick to equalise in the 36th.
Kruse got his chance to claim the Bundesliga penalty record outright after Salih Ozcan brought Ingvartsen down in the area.
Cologne's winless run stretched to 18 games, including last season.
Australian Associated Press