DORTMUND, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund breathed new life into its Bundesliga title challenge with an emphatic 6-1 victory over Cologne on Saturday as Leipzig lost again following its 7-0 defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League.
A draw with Schalke last week had left Dortmund two points off Bayern Munich in its bid to end Bayern’s decade-long streak of German titles.
Dortmund’s biggest win of the season was a way to show it is still in the race as it moved top with a one-point lead over Bayern.
Usually a left back, Raphael Guerreiro shone in his new central midfield role. He scored the opening goal off a low cross from Donyell Malen in the 15th minute and assisted two more. Dortmund’s second goal came almost immediately with a quick team move through the center which ended with Guerreiro playing in Sébastien Haller, who lofted the ball into the top-left corner.
Marco Reus made it 3-0 when he was left in space to meet another Guerreiro pass and shoot in the 32nd. Guerreiro’s performance could help persuade Dortmund to renew his contract, which expires at the end of the season. Malen scored Dortmund’s fourth soon after before Davie Selke responded with Cologne’s first league goal for five games.
Haller scored his second in the 69th on the rebound when Mahmoud Dahoud’s free kick bounced back off the bar. Reus soon added a sixth, his 150th career Bundesliga goal.
Bayern can retake top spot with a win or draw at Bayer Leverkusen on Sunday. Cologne is 13th.
Dortmund’s next game is the “Klassiker” against Bayern on April 1, after the upcoming international break.
LEIPZIG LOSES
Still reeling from its heavy defeat to City in the Champions League, Leipzig was beaten 1-0 by lowly Bochum.
Coach Marco Rose had spoken of a “realigned” Leipzig team which had put the Manchester ordeal behind them, but the loss showed Leipzig still has work to do. Depending on results elsewhere Sunday, the latest loss could leave Leipzig 10 points off the lead and outside the Champions League places after this weekend.
Bochum’s goal was a world away from Erling Haaland’s spellbinding five-goal haul for City, but a reminder to Leipzig of the need to do simple things well, especially defending set pieces. A long throw-in was flicked on and Erhan Mašović eventually headed in a rebound after a save from Leipzig keeper Janis Blaswich. Leipzig hit the post in stoppage time.
MATARAZZO’S MUCH-NEEDED WIN
A 3-1 win over Hertha Berlin relieved some of the pressure on American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo after he started life at Hoffenheim with five losses. Hoffenheim’s first two goals came from Andrej Kramarić’s penalties, the first awarded for handball and the second for a trip on Ihlas Bebou, who then scored the third after Hertha failed to deal with a long pass.
Matarazzo started the season as Stuttgart coach before being fired after a poor run in October. Hoffenheim dropped to the bottom of the Bundesliga table after losing all five previous games under Matarazzo and had scored just twice in his tenure before Saturday, but is now out of the relegation zone in 15th.
Relegation-threatened Schalke extended its unbeaten run to eight games in a 1-1 draw with 10-man Augsburg. Wolfsburg beat Stuttgart 1-0 with a goal from Omar Marmoush, who refused to celebrate after spending last season on loan at Stuttgart. Wolfsburg moves up to seventh and Stuttgart drops to last place.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
