Berlin, October 16 (BNA): Erling Haaland scored two goals upon his return to Borussia Dortmund to defeat Mainz 3-1 and move to the top of the German Bundesliga on Saturday.
Haaland scored a direct penalty in the middle of the minute in the 54th minute to decide the result in added time, leaving Dortmund two points away from Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen before their match in the eighth round on Sunday.
Haaland missed Dortmund’s previous three matches due to what the club described as muscle problems. In his absence, the team suffered a loss against Borussia Monchengladbach, followed by narrow victories over Sporting Lisbon and Augsburg.
But it was captain Marco Reus who opened the scoring on Saturday and fired a superb left-footed shot into the top right corner in the third minute.
Dortmund continued to dominate the game with almost 80% possession in the first half alone.
Thomas Meunier hit the ball wide after Haaland did a good job catching the ball, and the Norwegian took part again before the break when he saved well from Mainz goalkeeper Robin Zentner.
Haaland followed up and sent the ball back towards the goal, as Judd Bellingham’s attempt was pushed off the line by Moussa Nyakhati.
Haaland used absolute power to score the second goal for Dortmund after punishing Sylvain and destroying through VAR technology for a handball after the ball hit his elbow.
Jonathan Burchardt’s 87th-minute goal prompted a late push from the visitors, but Bellingham snatched the ball from a defender and crossed Haaland to seal the score with what was effectively the last game of the match. He has 13 goals in eight games this season.
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