Bayern crush Dortmund, Hamburg stun Hoffenheim in Bundesliga

Munich, April 9: Bayern Munich cruised past Borussia Dortmund 4-1 thanks to a brace from Robert Lewandowski, while Hamburg shocked Hoffenheim 2-1 riding on a couple from Aaron Hunt in the Bundesliga football championship.

Bayern returned to winning ways after beating Dortmund 4-1 in a one-sided affair as two goals within 10 minutes on Saturday smoothed the way for the 21st victory of the season, reports Xinhua news agency.

Carlo Ancelotti’s men caught a bright start in front of 75,000 spectators at the sold-out Allianz Are as French veteran winger Franck Ribery broke the deadlock with just four minutes into the game after a square pass from Philipp Lahm.

Bayern gained momentum and doubled the lead through Polish hitman Lewandowski, who curled a free kick from 20 metres into the bottom left corner, with 10 minutes played.

Hapless Dortmund showed a vital sign and reduced the arrears out of the blue in the 20th minute as Raphael Guerreiro utilised a misplaced clearance from midfielder Arturo Vidal to hammer home.

After the restart, Bayern started where they left off as Dutch veteran winger Arjen Robben made use of a through ball from Ribery to drill the ball from the edge of the box into the far post corner to restore the two-goal lead in the 49th minute.

However, Bayern were not done with the scoring and added another goal to their lead as Lewandowski converted a foul play pelty to mark his 26th goal of the season to put the result beyond doubt in the 68th minute.

Bayern remain atop the standings with a ten-point advantage while Dortmund stay on the fourth place after suffering the sixth loss of the season.

Hamburg extended their unbeaten streak to nine games as they surprisingly beat third placed Hoffenheim 2-1.

Hoffenheim, who had the confidence of beating leaders Bayern Munich on Tuesday, recovered quickly from the setback and responded just ten minutes later.

Hamburg’s Matthias Osterzolek brought down Ermin Bicakcic inside the box allowing Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric to level the scores with a converted foul-play pelty in the 35th minute against the run of the game.

The visitors should have grabbed the lead after the restart but Sandro Wagner was uble to press the ball over the goal line.

Hamburg continued to be the more active side and their efforts paid off in the 75th minute when Hunt capitalised on the solo run and square pass from Bobby Wood to seal the 2-1 victory into the empty net.

With the win, Hamburg move on the 13th place to increase the distance to the drop zone meanwhile third placed Hoffenheim lose contact to the top two.

Elsewhere, second-placed Leipzig edged Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 with 10 men thanks to the last-second goal by Yussuf Poulsen, who secured the third win in row. Lars Stindl’s decider wrapped up Monchengladbach’s 3-2 victory over Cologne in the Rhinederby. Schalke crushed Wolfsburg 4-1 as Guido Burgstaller provided a brace and Freiburg extended Mainz’ losing streak to five games as Nils Petersen scored the only goal of the match. IANS