Robert Lewandowski scored his 11th league goal this season as Bayern Munich went top of the Bundelsiga table yesterday with a 3-2 win at Borussia Dortmund. After Marco Reus put the hosts ahead, Bayern defender David Alaba blasted home a free-kick to make it 1-1 at half-time behind closed doors in Dortmund.
Lewandowski gave Bayern the lead with a superb header just after the break before Leroy Sane grabbed the visitors’ third while Erling Braut Haaland gave Dortmund hope with a late goal.
Earlier, RB Leipzig scored a 3-0 home win over Freiburg. Defender Ibrahima Konate fired home Leipzig’s opener before midfielder Marcel Sabitzer added their second goal with a 70th-minute penalty. Manchester City loanee Angelino claimed Leipzig’s third with a stunning free-kick which curled over the Freiburg wall just before the final whistle.
The home win put Leipzig top, but Bayern overtook went two clears after win over. “We really deserved the win — we were very, very good in the first-half,” said Leipzig head coach Julian Nagelsmann.
He was especially pleased with Konate’s opening goal from a towering cross before winger Christopher Nkunku, who scored in the mid-week win over Paris Saint Germain, won the penalty which Sabitzer converted after the VAR scrutinised the decision.
“We have trained a lot from set pieces,” said Nagelsmann. “It certainly wasn’t an obvious penalty, but if the VAR says it was, then it must have been,” he added after Nkunku went down after the slightest of touches from Freiburg defender Nicolas Hoefler.
Union Berlin climbed to fourth with a 5-0 home thrashing of strugglers Arminia Bielefeld. Former Germany striker Max Kruse helped set up Union’s first three goals, then converted a late penalty.
After just three minutes, Japan winger Keita Endo scored his first goal for Union when he swept home Sheraldo Becker’s final pass after Kruse’s superb long pass. Endo went off with an injury soon after, but Union kept up the pressure as Kruse set up the next two goals for centre-back Robert Andrich and winger Becker.
Kruse, 32, capped an outstanding display by converting a penalty before Cedric Teuchert, a right wing replacement for Becker, grabbed Union’s late fourth goal. At the other end of the table, bottom side Mainz were held to a 2-2 draw at home to Schalke, who sit one place above them and have now gone 23 games without a league win dating back to January.
After Daniel Brosinski and Jean-Philippe Mateta converted penalties for Mainz, Mark Uth pulled a goal back for Schalke who were 2-1 down late on. Schalke took a deserved point back to Gelsenkirchen when Mainz defender Jeremiah St.
Juste turned the ball into his own net eight minutes from time. After five games without a win, Hertha Berlin roared back with a 3-0 win in the fog at Augsburg. Forwards Matheus Cunha, Dodi Lukebakio and Krzysztof Piatek, who cost Hertha 24mn euros ($28mn) from AC Milan in January, got on the scoresheet as Augsburg’s defence crumbled.
Bundesliga results
RB Leipzig 3 (Konate 26, Sabitzer 70-pen, Angelino 89) Freiburg 0; Union Berlin 5 (Endo 3, Andrich 13, Becker 45+2, Kruse 52-pen, Teuchert 89) Arminia Bielefeld 0; Mainz 05 2 (Brosinski 6-pen, Mateta 45+2) Schalke 04 2 (Uth 36, St Juste 82-og); Augsburg 0 Hertha Berlin 3 (Cunha 42-pen, Lukebakio 52, Piatek 86); VfB Stuttgart 2 (Gonzalez 17-pen, Castro 37) Eintracht Frankfurt 2 (Silva 61, Abraham 75); Borussia Dortmund 2 (Reus 45, Haaland 83) Bayern Munich 3 (Alaba 45+4, Lewandowski 48, Sane 80)
Playing today: VfL Wolfsburg v Hoffenheim (1330), Bayer Leverkusen v Borussia Moenchengladbach (1700)
Played Friday: Werder Bremen 1 (Bittencourt 82-pen) Cologne 1 (Moisander 67-og)a
Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng (left) and Dortmund’s Erling Braut Haaland go for a header during the Bundesliga match in Dortmund, western Germany, yesterday. (AFP)
