Dortmund pressure Bayern with 3-2 win at Hoffenheim

Berlin, January 23 (BNA) – Borussia Dortmund beat Hoffenheim 3-2 to reduce the gap at the top of the German Bundesliga to three points, pending Bayern Munich’s trip to Hertha Berlin on Sunday.

Erling Haaland scored the first goal in the Saturday program after six minutes, and Marco Reus also scored as Dortmund quickly forgot his exit from the cup in the middle of the week against St. Pauli Hamburg and dropped Hoffenheim in sixth from fourth, the German news agency (dpa) reported.

Bayer Leverkusen cemented their position in third, Moussa Diaby’s 5-1 hat-trick over Augsburg while Union Berlin climbed to fourth after a 2-1 win over struggling Borussia Moenchengladbach, which could cause problems for coach Adi Hütter.

Freiburg occupies fifth place after winning 2-0 at the bottom of the standings over Stuttgart, and the basement team Grother Fürth achieved their second victory only, with a 2-1 victory at home to Mainz.

Cologne tied with its host Bochum 2-2 in a late match on Saturday to advance to seventh place.

Eintracht’s mid-table Champions League hopes were dealt another blow on Friday after their 2-0 home defeat by Armenia Bielefeld, who are three points clear of the automatic relegation zone.

As well as leaders Bayern Munich traveling to the capital on Sunday, RB Leipzig improved hosting beleaguered Wolfsburg.

Dortmund made sure Bayern entered that match looking over their shoulder after Haaland entered early after a great team move.

But Hoffenheim hit the net twice before Andrej Kramaric crossed Ihles Bebo’s cross into the net just before the end of the first half.

Dortmund crushed Freiburg 5-1 last weekend, but followed that up with Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to second tier St. Pauli, which knocked the defending champions out of the German Cup in the round of 16.

Their inconsistency looked as though it was playing out once again into the hands of Bayern, who are chasing their 10th consecutive title, but another great team move provided Reus to score in 58 minutes.

David Raum’s own goal made the victory safe for the visitors after Jorginho Reuter trailed for Hoffenheim too late. Haaland though limp from the wounded.

“We started really well in the first minutes and then … we got very passive,” Rios told Sky TV. “We went to five behind in the second half which helped us.”

Leverkusen have two points in the top four after Karim Belarabi and Diaby scored early. Diaby’s second goal in the 65th minute quickly dashed third-placed Augsburg’s hopes of a comeback after Arne Mayer cut the difference.

After that, French winger Diaby completed the hat-trick he scored on the counter-attack to score the eighth goal of the season with Lucas Alario clinching the heel.

“After a poor stage at the start of the second half, the team quickly took matters into their own hands. A deserved win in my opinion,” said Leverkusen coach Gerardo Sewan.

FKN