Borussia Dortmund thrash Hannover, extend lead over Bayern

Dortmund: First-placed Borussia Dortmund trounced visiting Hannover 5-1 in Bundesliga Matchday 19 action at Signal Iduna Park to extend their lead over Bayern Munich to nine points.

Dortmund (48 points) recorded their 15th win of the German-league season on Saturday, while Hannover remains in 17th place with 11 points following their latest loss.

Moroccan right-back Achraf Hakimi opened the scoring for Dortmund in minute 24 with a right-footed shot from the edge of the area that went in the bottom-right corner of the goal.

That goal, which came after a give-and-go play involving Hakimi and teammate Raphael Guerreiro, was the only score before the intermission.

After the break, Hakimi pressed Hannover’s Miiko Albornoz and won the ball inside the box before setting up Marco Reus for Dortmund’s second goal at the one-hour mark.

The German international finished off the play by cheekily flicking the ball over a defender and into the back of the net.

Just two minutes later, Germany forward Mario Gotze made the score 3-0 with a right-footed shot from the right side of the box the went in just inside the far post, culminating a remarkable individual effort from young English winger Jadon Sancho.

It was Guerreiro’s turn to find Hannover’s net at the 67-minute mark on a counter-attack play, with the Portuguese midfielder scoring his side’s fourth goal with a right-footed finish off a pass from Reus.

In the closing minutes, midfielder Marvin Bakalorz pulled one back for Hannover with a right-footed shot from the edge of the box that deflected off of two players and made its way past Dortmund keeper Roman Bürki, but the away side’s lone goal proved much too little too late.

Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel put one final nail in Hannover’s coffin with a long-distance shot just before second-half stoppage time.

In other action in Germany’s top league, Borussia Monchengladbach provisionally leapfrogged Bayern Munich into second place by defeating visiting Augsburg 2-0 thanks to second-half goals by Swedish midfielder Oscar Wendt and German forward Patrick Herrmann.

With the win, Monchengladbach have 39 points and are just ahead of Bayern on goal differential, while Augsburg provisionally stayed in the 15th place with 15 points.

Six-time defending Bundesliga champion Bayern, who have a game in hand on Monchengladbach, will host 16th-placed Stuttgart on Sunday afternoon.

In other Bundesliga action on Saturday, Hoffenheim defeated host Freiburg 4-2, Bayer Leverkusen scored a 3-0 away win over Wolfsburg and Mainz earned a 2-1 win at home over FC Nurnberg. IANS

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