Bayer Leverkusen scored twice in two minutes to complete a thrilling comeback as they beat Borussia Dortmund 4-3 yesterday, denying their visitors a chance to go second in the Bundesliga table.
Kevin Volland swept a shot past Roman Buerki and into the far corner to give Leverkusen the lead in the 20th minute, but Mats Hummels deftly headed home from a corner to put the visitors back on level terms two minutes later. Emre Can then gave Dortmund the lead with a wonder strike in the 33rd minute, picking up the ball well outside the box before unleashing a brilliant dipping shot that curled into the net past the despairing dive of Lukas Hradecky.
Undeterred, Leverkusen were back level two minutes before halftime as Dortmund failed to clear a corner and Volland struck his second goal of the game. Dortmund went ahead again in the 65th minute with a superb team goal, working the ball quickly in from the right before Achraf Hakimi set up Raphael Guerreiro for a simple side-footed finish.
The visitors looked to be cruising to victory until goals from Leon Bailey and Lars Bender in the 81st and 82nd minutes put Leverkusen back in the driving seat, with Dortmund failing to recover from the one-two punch. The defeat left Dortmund third in the table on 39 points from 21 games, three points behind leaders Bayern Munich, who play second-placed RB Leipzig (41 points) on Sunday. Leverkusen remain fifth on 37.
Earlier, Sweden striker Robin Quaison hit a hat-trick as Mainz beat 10-man Hertha Berlin 3-1 in the capital on Saturday to push Jurgen Klinsmann’s side towards the Bundesliga relegation spots. Hertha have just one win in their five games in all competitions in 2020 under ex-Germany and USA head coach Klinsmann, who took charge last November. Klinsmann, 55, blamed the defeat on Hertha’s midweek German Cup loss at Schalke, which was marred by alleged racist abuse aimed at Hertha defender Jordan Torunarigha by home fans.
Hertha splashed out 80mn euros ($87.5mn) in the January transfer window on new recruits including strikers Krzysztof Piatek from AC Milan and Matheus Cunha from RB Leipzig. However, Quaison ran riot at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium with goals either side of half-time before claiming a hat-trick by converting a late penalty.
At the other end, Piatek and his Hertha strike partner Pascal Koepke struggled to create goal chances.
Hertha’s only consolation was an own goal by Mainz defender Jeffrey Bruma just before Berlin midfielder Marius Wolf was sent off for a second yellow card soon before the final whistle. Having also been drubbed 4-0 by leaders Bayern Munich in January, Hertha are now 14th in the table, two places from the relegation spots.
In Gelsenkirchen, Schalke’s title aspirations suffered a dent in a 1-1 draw at home to bottom side Paderborn. With league leaders Bayern Munich hosting second-placed RB Leipzig in today’s showdown, fifth-placed Schalke are now seven points from top spot.
Schalke took a second-half lead when youth academy product Ahmed Kutucu, 19, came on as a substitute and fired home from a tight angle. But Paderborn took a point when midfielder Klaus Gjasula equalised with a late header.
Werder Bremen are now deep in the relegation places after a 2-0 home defeat to mid-table Union Berlin.
Second-half goals by Union winger Marius Buelter did the damage, combined with Mainz’s win at Hertha Berlin, to leave Bremen 17th and four points from safety. Bremen’s 37-year-old head coach Florian Kohfeldt is under pressure after seven defeats in 10 games.
His cause was not helped as Fortuna Duesseldorf picked up a point to move above Bremen by drawing 1-1 at ten-man Wolfsburg.
Duesseldorf took an early lead when winger Mathias Zimmermann fired into the bottom corner.
Wolfsburg had defender Marin Pongracic sent off just after the break for elbowing Alfredo Morales at a free-kick. Despite being a man down, Wolfsburg drew level three minutes later as midfielder Renato Steffen headed home. Mid-table Freiburg rebounded from back-to-back defeats with a 1-0 win over Hoffenheim, thanks to a first-half penalty by striker Luca Waldschmidt at the Schwarzwald Stadion
German Bundesliga results 
Wolfsburg 1 (Steffen 50) Fortuna Duesseldorf 1 (Zimmermann 13); Werder Bremen 0 Union Berlin 2 (Bulter 52, 72); Hertha Berlin 1 (Bruma 85-og) Mainz 3 (Quaison 17, 82, 90+4-pen); Freiburg 1 (Waldschmidt 40-pen) Hoffenheim 0; Schalke 1 (Kutucu 63) Paderborn 1 (Gjasula 82); Bayer Leverkusen 4 (Volland 30, 43, Bailey 81, Bender 82) Borussia Dortmund 3 (Hummels 22, Can 33, Guerreiro 65)
Playing today: Borussia Moenchengladbach v Cologne (1430), Bayern Munich v RB Leipzig (1700)
Played Friday: Eintracht Frankfurt 5 (Chandler 37, 48, Silva 55, Kostic 89, 90) Augsburg 0