Bundesliga Review: Dortmund close gap as Bayern stumble

Borussia Monchengladbach stole Saturday’s Bundesliga headlines as they brought Bayern Munich’s record-breaking unbeaten start to the season to an end with a 3-1 win at Borussia-Park.

The hosts have lost just once in 14 games since Andre Schubert succeeded Lucien Favre in late September, rising to third in the table in the process.

And despite being outplayed by the league leaders for most of the first half, they went ahead through Oscar Wendt 10 minutes after the break and then found themselves three up when Lars Stindl and Fabian Johnson scored two goals in as many minutes.

Franck Ribery did mark his return from a long-term ankle injury by pulling one back for the visitors, but Schubert’s men duly saw out the rest of the game to confirm their status as Bayern’s traditional bogey team, having taken two wins and a draw from their last three clashes with the Bavarian giants.

Bayern’s slip-up provided second-placed Borussia Dortmund with a huge incentive to win their late game at Wolfsburg and they duly did so 2-1 in dramatic style.

Germany international Marco Reus fired Thomas Tuchel’s men into a 32nd-minute lead at the Volkswagen Arena, but they looked set to have to settle for a point when Swiss defender Ricardo Rodriguez replied for the visitors in the 90th minute.

Deep into stoppage-time, however, Shinji Kagawa’s left-foot shot found the bottom corner to clinch the win.

That result saw Wolfsburg slip out of the top four, while Dortmund extended their superb run of form to nine wins in 11 games and closed the gap on Bayern to seven points.

Elsewhere, Augsburg moved out of the relegation zone courtesy of a battling 1-0 win at Cologne.

There was a similarly tight affair at the Olympiastadion where fifth-placed Hertha Berlin downed sixth-placed Bayer Leverkusen 2-1.

Vladimir Darida handed the hosts an early lead and to compound Leverkusen’s woes, they then lost Sebastian Boenisch to a 17th-minute red card.

Nevertheless, they drew level when in-form striker Javier Hernandez bagged his eighth goal in 10 games having been teed up by Admir Mehmedi.

Hertha were not to be denied, however, with John Brooks securing a vital win by heading home on the hour-mark. 

Hamburg’s recent upsurge in form, meanwhile, came to an end as they crashed 3-1 at home to Mainz and there was also a late goal at Ingolstadt’s Audi Sportpark where Mark Uth salvaged a 1-1 draw for Hoffenheim with a stoppage-time leveller.