(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Borussia Dortmund restored their six-point lead over Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday night as Axel Witsel netted in their 1-0 away win at fourth-placed RB Leipzig.
Second-placed Bayern, the defending champions, had trimmed Dortmund's lead to three points on Friday with an impressive 3-1 win at Hoffenheim as Leon Goretzka scored two superb first-half goals.
Leipzig suffered their first home league defeat this season and Dortmund's victory was all the more impressive without captain and playmaker Marco Reus, who twisted an ankle in training on Friday.
On the first weekend of the Bundesliga after the winter break, Dortmund claimed the winner on 19 minutes when the ball fell to Witsel from a corner and the Belgium midfielder reacted fastest, firing home off the underside of the crossbar. Dortmund created chances after the break as England winger Jadon Sancho and Maximilian Philipp, Reus' replacement, both got in behind the Leipzig defence, but failed to convert. At the other end, Dortmund goalkeeper Roman Buerki twice denied Leipzig forwards Timo Werner and Marcel Sabitzer as the hosts pushed for an equaliser.
Paco Alcacer, Dortmund's top scorer with 12 league goals, had an effort ruled out for offside and smacked the crossbar with another shot when he came on for the final, nervy 10 minutes. Earlier on Saturday, Borussia Moenchengladbach kept pace with Dortmund and Bayern in the title race as Alassane Plea scored in their 1-0 win at Bayer Leverkusen. Gladbach breached Leverkusen's defence when captain Lars Stindl split the defence with a superb pass before Plea fired home his tenth goal this season eight minutes before the break. Leverkusen had second-half chances as their Germany teenage international Kai Havertz fired wide, Karim Bellarabi hit the post and Jamaica winger Leon Bailey had a penalty appeal turned down.
Plea, 25, has been a revelation on the road for Gladbach since joining from Nice last July with eight of his league goals so far having been scored away from home. The away win leaves Gladbach three points behind Bayern and nine adrift of Dortmund.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt climbed to fifth, a point from the Champions League berths, with a 3-1 win at home to Freiburg as striker Luka Jovic claimed his 13th goal this season to become the league's top-scorer. A header by Sebastian Haller gave Frankfurt the lead on 34 minutes before the hosts pulled away with two superb goals.
Croatia forward Ante Rebic beat three defenders with a dramatic change of direction, which created space to curl his shot into the goal on 40 minutes. Jovic, who scored five goals in one league game in October, added Frankfurt's third just before the break before Nils Petersen pulled a goal back from Freiburg in the second half.
Werder Bremen climbed to eighth with a 1-0 win at Hanover as Kosovo striker Milot Rashica scored the winner by finishing off a move started by captain Max Kruse. Stuttgart remain in the relegation places after a 3-2 defeat at home to Mainz.
Mainz built up a 3-0 lead with an own goal by Stuttgart defender Santiago Ascacibar before striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and defender Alexander Hack netted. However, Stuttgart roared back with two goals in the final seven minutes from Nicolas Gonzalez and Marc Oliver Kempf before Anastasios Donis hit the post in a dramatic finish.
Fortuna Duesseldorf, who last month stunned Dortmund 2-1 and drew 3-3 at Bayern, are now six games unbeaten after a 2-1 win at Augsburg with Benito Raman scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute.
Yesterday, Veteran striker Vedad Ibisevic helped break Hertha Berlin's five-game winless streak with a hand in all three goals in their 3-1 victory at the Bundesliga's bottom side Nuremberg.
Hertha recorded their first win since December 8 to climb to seventh in the Bundesliga table as Ibisevic, 34, who is out of contract in June, showed his experience with a commanding performance in icy conditions.
The Bosnia and Herzegovina international gave Hertha the lead after he quickly exchanged passes with strike partner Davie Selke and steered his shot past Nuremberg goalkeeper Christian Mathenia after 15 minutes for his seventh league goal this season.
The hosts drew level just before the break when midfielder Hanno Behrens stabbed home a long-range shot from Eduard Loewen from the edge of the box which bobbled past several defenders. However, Ibisevic made sure of the three points by steering a cross from the right into the path of Ondrej Duda, who restored Hertha's lead five minutes after the break.
Duda netted his second goal on 70 minutes when Ibisevic let a pass from Selkie fall to the Slovakia midfielder who crashed home his ninth goal of the season.
Bundesliga Result
Nuremberg 1 (Behrens 42) Hertha Berlin 3 (Ibisevic 15, Duda 50, 70)
Played Saturday: Bayer Leverkusen 0 Borussia Moenchengladbach 1 (Plea 37); VfB Stuttgart 2 (Gonzalez 83, Kempf 85) Mainz 3 (Ascacibar 22-og, Mateta 28, Hack 72); Eintracht Frankfurt 3 (Haller 36, Rebic 40, Jovic 45) Freiburg 1 (Petersen 69); Augsburg 1 (Schmid 64) Fortuna Dusseldorf 2 (Ducksch 45, Raman 89); Hanover 0 Werder Bremen 1 (Rashica 32); RB Leipzig 0 Borussia Dortmund 1 (Witsel 19)
Played Friday: Hoffenheim 1 (Schulz 59) Bayern Munich 3 (Goretzka 34, 45+1, Lewandowski 87)
MENAFN2001201900670000ID1098000194
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.