Dortmund win, Leverkusen held in Bundesliga

Berlin, Jan 24: German football club Dortmund moved 3-1 past Monchengladbach whereas Leverkusen shared the spoils with Hoffenheim following a 1-1 draw in the 18th round of Bundesliga.

Runner-up Dortmund started with a 3-1 win against fourth placed Monchengladbach into the second half of the campaign. Thomas Tuchel’s men staged a powerful performance against the ‘Foals’ to record their 13th win of the season on Saturday, reports Xinhua.

Both sides staged an evenly balanced start into the encounter yet the ‘BVB’ were able to pose more threat. Nevertheless, the 54,000 spectators at the Borussia Park had to wait until the 41st minute before Marco Reus broke the deadlock into the far post corner after Ilkay Guendogan’s through ball.

Monchengladbach turned up after the break but neither Ibrahima Traore nor Lars Stindl were able to level the scores from promising positions. Dortmund punished Monchengladbach’s wastefulness moments later as Henrikh Mkhitaryan made use of Reus’ build-up to slot home the 2-0 lead in the 51st minute.

Monchengladbach’s Raffael sparked hopes seven minutes later as he reduced the arrears to 2-1 from very close range. It was a short-lived joy for the hosts since Dortmund destroyed all hopes of a comeback with the 3-1 by Guendogan, who tapped in Mkhitaryan’s pinpoint cross into the box in the 75th minute.

As a result, Dortmund stay in second place with an eight point deficit to front-runners Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Monchengladbach remain fourth.

Fifth placed Leverkusen craved out a 1-1 draw at relegation threatened Hoffenheim, thanks to an equaliser from Oemer Toprak.

Elsewhere, Berlin failed to tighten third place owing to a goalless draw against Augsburg. Hannover dropped to last place following a 1-2 loss as Darmstadt’s Sandro Wagner’s double strike turned the tides.

Stuttgart came from behind to beat Cologne 3-1 thanks to goals by Daniel Didavi, Timo Werner and Christian Gentner as newly promoted Ingolstadt clinched the sixth win of the season with a 1-0 over Mainz, who remain goalless for the third consecutive time. IANS